236 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



in waters relatively rich in mineral salts, but nearly 

 stagnant, as a submerged plant and in the closed reed 

 swamp in the Broads. 



The habit is aquatic, the rootstock being creeping, 

 rooting in the mud under the water. The stems ascend 

 (in flower) to the surface, but are usually submerged 

 and are more or less branched. The leaves are in 

 whorls, submerged, in fours, threes or fives, and the 

 segments of the pinnate leaves are hair-like, linear. 



The flowers are borne in a spike (hence spicatiim), 

 (which is aerial, erect in bud, above water), and are 

 minute, in small whorls, the floral leaves in fours, 

 pectinate, with short bracts. The uppermost flowers 

 are entire, male, with oblong anthers, on very short 

 stalks, which project beyond the calyx and corolla. 

 The lower flowers are female, very small. The 

 capsules are nearly globular or oblong, and separate 

 into four one-seeded carpels. 



The flowers are to be found in June, July and 

 August, and the plant is a herbaceous perennial. It 

 is a floating plant. 



The flowers are pollinated by the wind. There 

 may be intermediate hermaphrodite flowers in the 

 inflorescence. 



The capsule or drupe is two- to four-lobed. The 

 one-seeded carpels are dispersed by the water. 



Names given generally to plants of this genus are 

 Meakin, Water Milfoil. 



Myriophyllum spicatum. — The pectinate character 

 of the foliage is shown in Fig. 48, also the whorls of 



