174 HYDROCHARITACEZ. [{ Lacarostpnon. 
L. Roxburghii, Benth. in Gen. Pl. iii, 451; F. B. I. V, 659 ; 
Prain Beng. Pl. 995 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. 1, 669. Vallisneria alter- 
nifolia, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii, 750. 
Stems filiform, 2-3 ft. long; roots fibrous; upper branches floating.. 
Leaves sessile, alternate and opposite, 3-4 in. long, oblong-lanceolate, 
acute, minutely serrulate. Mate flowers: Spathe ovoid, at length. 
2-valved, enclosing many minute shortly stalked flowers. Sepals 
skortly oblong, pink. Petals about as long as sepals, white. Stamens 
2; anthers opening transversely. Frm. flowers: Spathe 3 in. long, 
Scope 2-fid. Ovary lanceolate, tipped with a filiform flexuous. 
beak. 
Common within the area in tanks and streams. DistR1B. : Throughout 
the plains of India and in Ceylon, extending to China and Japan. 
3 VALLISNERIA, Linn.; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 660. 
Submerged tufted stemless stoloniferous herbs. Leaves very 
long, linear. Flowers dicecious, the males numerous, minute, in 
an ovoid 3-lobed shortly peduncled spathe, the females solitary 
in a tubular 3-toothed spathe terminal on a very long filiform 
spiral scape ; sepals 3, petals 3, minute or none. Matz flowers =: 
Stamens 1-3, filaments rather thick, anthers didymous. Pistiliode 
none. Ferm. flowers: Staminodes 3, each 2-fid. Ovary narrow, 
not produced upwards ; stigmas 3, broad, notched, ovules numerous. 
Fruit linear, included in the spathe. Seeds numerous, oblong, 
testa membranous.—Species about 4, in the warmer regions of 
both hemispheres. 
Vv. spiralis, Linn. Sp. Pl. 1015 ; F. B. I. V., 660 ; Watt EH. D. ; 
Prain Beng. Pl. 996 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 669. V. spiraloides, Roxb. 
Fl. Ind. wii, 750. 
Leaves radical, narrowly linear, varying in length with the depth of 
the water, translucent, entire, or serrulate at the tips. Man flowers. 
many, minute, in shortly stalked spathes ; when ready to open they 
become detached and rise to the surface of the water, the expanded 
perianth acting as a float. FrmaE flowers sclitary within a 3- 
toothed spathe and borne on a long spiral-stalk, the uncoiling of 
which brings the flower to the surface to be fertilized by the floating: 
males, after which the female scape coils up again into a close spiral 
