Myriophyllum. 681 
2 or 3 ov rarely 4-celled, with 1 pendulous ovule in each cell, or 
1-celled with 1—4 pendulous ovules; styles as many as ovules, 
quite distinct, with papillose or plumose stigmas. Fruit inferior. 
small, indehiscent, with 1—4 cells and seeds or divisible into 2—4 
1-seeded indehiscent carpels. Seeds pendulous, with a membranous 
testa; embryo cylindrical, in the axis of a fleshy albumen; radicle 
long, superior; cotyledons small. — Herbs, often aquatic, or under- 
shrubs. Leaves opposite, whorled or alternate, without stipules. 
Flowers small, often unisexual or incomplete, axillary or rarely in 
terminal corymbs racemes or panicles. 
The Order is dispersed over nearly the whole globe. 
375. Myriophyllum Linn. 
Flowers mostly unisexual. Male flower: Calyx-tube very short 
or scarcely any, lobes short, petal-like or scarcely any. Petals 4, 
concave, imbricate or half induplicate. Stamens 4, 6 or 8. Styles 
minute and rudimentary, without any ovules. Female flower: Calyx- 
tube ovoid, lobes minute or none. Petals usually none. Ovary 2 or 
4-celled, with one pendulous ovule in each cell; styles as many as 
ovules, usually short and stigmatic from the base, often plumose. 
Fruit small, usually furrowed between the 2 or 4 carpels, which at 
length separate into as many small l-seeded nuts. Aquatic herbs, 
the lower leaves when submerged often pinnately divided into 
capillary lobes; those of the flowering extremities usually less divided 
or entire. Flowers very small, in the axils of the exserted flowering 
leaves or rarely also or entirely in the submerged axils, the upper 
ones usually males, the lower ones females, sometimes dioecious, 
but perhaps not constantly so in any species. 
The genus is found in fresh waters nearly in every part of the globe. 
970. Myriophyllum spicatum L. Spec. Plant. I (1753), p. 1410. 
— Boiss. Flor. Or. J, p. 755. — Ic. Engl. Bot. tab. 83. — Aschers.- 
Schweinf. Ill. Flor. d’Eg., p. 76 no. 438. — Sickenberg. Contrib. Flor. 
WHeg., p. 230. — Myriophyllum verticillatum Fig. Stud. Scient. sull. 
Kgitto I, p. 221 not. L. -— Rootstock perennial, creeping and rooting 
in the mud under water. Stems ascending to the surface, but 
usually wholly immersed, varying in length according to the depth 
of the water, and more or less branched. Leaves whorled, in fours 
or sometimes in threes or in fives, along the whole length of the 
stem; the numerous capillary segments entire, 6 to near 10 mm 
long. From the summit of the branches a slender spike, 5—6 cm 
long, protrudes from the water, bearing minute flowers arranged in 
little whorls, and surrounded by small bracts seldom as long as the 
