74 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
more abruptly beaked, and with the ribs more slender and much more 
numerous. 
Floating Water-Plantain. | 
French, Pliteau nageant. German, Schwimmender Iroschliffel. 
GENUS V—ACTINOCARPUS. ik. Br. 
b 
4 
4 
Flowers perfect. Perianth with the 3 outer leaves herbaceous, sub- 
persistent, the three inner rather larger, petaloid, caducous. Stam 
6, hypogynous; filaments filiform; anthers introrse, affixed by 
back. Ovaries 6 or 8 in a whorl, united at the base, free at 
apex ; stigma simple. J ruit 6 or 8 indehiscent beaked ca 
united at the base, the apices spreading in the form of a star, 
containing 2 or more seeds or only 1 by abortion of the other ovules, — 
Aquatic or marsh plants with oblong stalked leaves, floating whe 
the plant is immersed, or erect when it grows out of water. Flowers 
white, in a raceme on a scape with verticillate branches. . 
The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is from dx«réc, a ray, and Kapri, 
fruit. 7 
q 
SPECIES I—ACTINOCARPUS DAMASONIUM. Hook, 
Pirate MCCCCXLIL. 
Alisma Damasonium, Linn. Sim. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 1615; and Engl. Fl. Vol. I. 
». 204, i 
Pee stellatum, Pers. Kunth. Enum. Pl. Vol. Il. p. 155. Benth. Handbk, 
Brit. Bot. ed. ii. p. 446. Gren. & Godr. Fl. de Fr. Vol. II. p. 167. 
Leaves oblong or oyal-oblong, cordate or subcordate. Raceme 
with 1 to 4 whorls of flowers. Pedicels not thickened, longer than 
the follicles. Follicles 2-seeded or 1-seeded by abortion, the beak 
without prominent nerves. 
In pools, especially on gravelly soil. Rare. Reported from 
Gulval Marsh, near pieathe: on the authority of the late Rey. 
W. S. Bree; but, as no other botanist has found it there, it is 
probably extinct in that locality. It used to grow about two miles 
from Christchurch, on the Lyndhurst Road, Hants; but has not, 80 
far as I know, been gathered there recently. Near Tunbridge Wells, 
Sussex. Not uncommon on the commons in Surrey, and in Epping 
Forest, Essex, and the adjoining district as far east as Warley; Fram- 
lingham, Suffolk; Dropmore Common, Herts; and Ellesmere, Salop ; 
formerly on Hounslow Heath, Middlesex, and W ingfield Plain, near 
Windsor, Berks. 
