418 THE DUCKMEAT FAMILY. 



10. Heath Wood-rttsh — [Liizula congesta.) 

 Moors and heathy places, also by pond-sides and in woods, but never 

 among hay-grass, common, though by no means universal, as the cam- 

 jyestris is. Fl. June, a month or six weeks later than the preceding. 

 E. B., Supp. ii. 2718. 

 Many botanists regard this plant as a variety of the L. campestris. I am dis- 

 posed to consider it a good species. It is considerably taller, and generally much 

 tufted, blossoms several weeks later, and has flowers of a delicate light brown, 

 instead of blackish. Near Manchester, at least, there never occur intermediate 

 forms. 



The hairs on the stems and leaves of all these species of Luzula hang about 

 them in a very curious manner, looking as if left behind by some furry animal. 



CXLII.— THE DUCKMEAT FAMILY. Lemndcem or Pistidcece. 



Minute aquatics, known in England only in the common duckmeat, 

 and three other species of the same genus. They are the simplest, 

 not only of Endogens, but of all flowering-plants whatever, consisting 

 of nothing more than thin green plates of cellular tissue, which float 

 horizontally upon the surface of stagnant water, the plates either grow- 

 ing separately or cohering two or three together by their edges, and 

 with long hair-like roots hanging from their under surfaces. The 

 multiplication of the plates is rapid and constant, so that the pond or 

 other water which they inhabit is usually covered with an even green 

 carpet. The flowers are put forth, like the buds, from the margins of 

 the plates, and consist of nothing more than a delicate membranous 

 bag, two stamens, and a solitary ovary. 



A. 

 1. Hoots growing in clusters. Plates broadly ovate or circular, about) Great 



a quarter of an inch across in their longest diameter j Duckmeat. 



B. 

 Boots solitary, i. e., only one root to each plate. 



Plates long and narrow, very thin, minutely toothed at one end, 

 and tapering into a little stalk at the other, with two young ones 

 usually growing from opposite sides, near the base, and at right 

 angles with the principal plate 



Ivy- LEAVED 



Duckmeat. 



Plates broadly oval or egg-shaped. 



3. Plates flat, thin, scarcely convex underneath Common Duckmeat. 



4. Plates thick, spongy, and almost hemispherical underneath. .Giuuous Duckmeat, 



