ALISMACEZ. 65 
GENUS IT—TRIGLOCHIN. Linn. 
Flowers perfect. Perianth of 6 deciduous concave subherbaceous 
‘similar segments. Stamens 6, inserted near the base of the perianth 
‘seements; filaments very short. Ovary 6-celled, the alternate cells 
sometimes sterile ; ovules solitary in each cell; stigmas 3 or 6, sessile 
or subsessile, plumose. Fruit of 3 or 6 1-seeded cocca, separating from 
the columella at the base, and at length opening by the ventral suture. 
Herbs with grasslike, flat, or semicylindrical leaves, and naked 
scapes, bearing racemes of minute greenish flowers. 
_ The name of this genus of plants is derived from the Greek words zpeic, three, and 
“yAwyxur, the head of an arrow, alluding to the pointed valves of the capsule. 
SPECIES I—TRIGLOCHIN PALUSTRE. Linn. 
Prate MCCCCXXXIII. 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Hely. Vol. VII. Tab. LI. Figs. 90 and 91. 
Billot, F). Gall. et Germ. Exsice. No. 1547. 
Rootstock not bulbous, producing elongated runners, from which 
ew plants are produced at a distance from the parent. Leaves in 
‘solitary tufts, very narrowly linear, semicylindrical, faintly channeled 
above. Scape curved only at the very base, then straight and erect, 
‘longer than the leaves. Fruit clavate-cylindrical, splitting into 3 cocca, 
which are attenuated into slender pointed bases. 
__ In wet meadows and heaths, and by the sides of ditches. Common, 
and generally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 
Rootstock slender, emitting a number of root-fibres, and sending 
‘out slender stolons, ‘which at length become thickened at the apex, 
and produce new plants almost “always at some distance from the 
‘parent. Base of the scape invested with the fibrous remains of 
the leaves of former years. Leaves very variable in length, some- 
times little more than an inch, at other times above a foot; in all 
‘cases with their bases dilated and sheathing the scape, the sheaths 
with scarious margins, the leaf itself rush- like, but weak and not 
rigid. Scape usually solitary from each leaf-tuft, at length 3 inches 
‘to 2 feet high, rather more than half of it occupied by “the raceme 
when in fruit. Raceme dense while in flower, lengthening between 
vach pedicel as the flowers wither, and becoming lax in fruit. Pedicels 
shorter than the perianth when in flower, lenathening afterwards, and 
‘commonly a little shorter than the ripe fruit. Perianth segments 
igreenish-yellow with purplish edges, oval, the 3 outer ones spreading, 
} VOL. Ix. K 
