262 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



There are few counties in which this UmbelHferous 

 plant does not grow, and in the Lake District it is 

 found at an altitude of looo ft. It is also found in 

 the Channel Islands. 



The habitat is marshes, bogs, ponds, lakes, and the 

 plant is a moisture-loving species. The plant occurs 

 on low-lying clayey soils where there is an association 

 of rushes in wet meadows. In siliceous wet grassland 

 it is found where there is an association of the purple 

 moor grass, with Bog Violet, Lesser Spearwort, 

 Sundew, Butterw^ort, Cottongrass, etc. It is found 

 in the fen formation, on grass moor in upland moors, 

 and in dune marsh associations. 



The plant is creeping in habit. The stem is 

 slender, white, sometimes floating, when it is more 

 truly aquatic. The stem roots at the nodes, with 

 small tufts of leaves and flowers. The leaves are 

 shield-shaped, rounded, scalloped or lobed, with nine 

 veins, and the long, hairy stalk arises from the centre 

 beneath. 



The florets are borne in a minute umbel in the 

 axils, shortly stalked, the flower-stalks shorter than 

 the leaf-stalks. The flowers are white or pinkish- 

 green, in a single, terminal head, or in two or three 

 whorls, with three to six florets. The bracts are very 

 small, triangular, concave. The umbels may be pro- 

 liferous in the centre and bear a second head. 



The fruit is small, flat, smooth, the carpels being 

 covered with resinous points, with two ridges on 

 each face. There are no vittse. 



