12 ALISMACEA® 
scattered in gathering. Though this Plantain grows quite in the water, yet 
it is often near enough to the margin to be reached by the hand; and it is 
found in lakes, ditches and pools throughout the three kingdoms, and in the 
Channel Islands; it is plentiful in the south and rare in the north. The 
swollen base of the stem contains a nutritious farinaceous matter ; and the 
plant has for some centuries past been regarded as a most valuable remedy 
in cases of hydrophobia. Several cases have been recorded by Lewshin, 
Moser, and other writers, in which two drachms and a half daily of the root 
were administered internally, and a cataplasm made of the crushed leaves. 
Our best botanists, however, doubt if the plant is of any real efficacy in this 
malady. The roots are commonly eaten by the Kalmuck Tartars. A writer 
in the Encyclopédie des Sciences says, ‘‘It has the singular property of curing 
those who have eaten the sea-hare ;’ and adds, that Hoffman praises it as a 
vulnerary, and that it is by the peasants substituted for hellebore in the 
disorders of cattle. The singular thing would be that anybody should eat 
the sea-hare ; but if they did, it is very doubtful whether it would disagree 
with them. 
2. Floating Water Plantain (4. ndtans).—Root-leaves linear, taper- 
pointed, and sessile; floating leaves stalked, oblong, blunt; stem leafy, 
floating, and rooting; capsule marked with lines. This is a very rare 
species, found in ponds and lakes, chiefly along the west side of England, 
from Cumberland to Hereford and Wales. In Scotland it is recorded from 
Ayr and Wigton, and in Ireland from the west. The stems are thread-like, 
and from three to ten feet long; and the flower-stalks issue from the joints 
of the stem, and are erect and single-flowered. The blossoms appear in 
July and August, and are large and white, with a yellow spot near the 
centre ; the root-leaves grow in small tufts, and are often little more than 
leaf-stalks. Some authors separate this species from the others, and con- 
stitute it a genus under the name of Elisma natans. 
3. Lesser Water Plantain (4. ranunculoides).—Leaves all from the 
root, linear lanceolate; flower-stalk with simple branches, in one or two 
whorls ; capsules angular, acute, numerous, in a globular head ; root fibrous. 
In one form the plant is erect, in another (var. repens) trailing, the umbels 
rooting. This is not a common plant, though found in many ditches and 
bogs throughout the kingdom. It is much smaller than the Great Water 
Plantain, which it otherwise resembles, except that its flowers are propor- 
tionately larger, and grow in one or two whorls. They expand in August, 
and are of a pale purplish colour. The flower-stalks are from three to ten 
inches long. 
2. STAR-FRUIT (Actinocarpus). 
Common Star-fruit (4. damasénium).—Leaves oblong, all from the 
root ; flowers similar to those of Alisma ; styles 6; root fibrous, and peren- 
nial. This, which is not a frequent plant, occurs in ponds and ditches in the 
midland and south-eastern counties of England. The leaves float on the 
water on long stalks ; and the flowers, which grow in whorls on a stalk about 
six inches high, are white, with a yellow spot in the centre. The fruit is 
very remarkable for the arrangement of its six or eight large carpels in a 
