78 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
rudimentary, 3-lobed. Female flowers solitary, longly pedicellate from 
a 1-leaved sessile membranous spathe: tube of the perianth herbaceous, 
adherent to the ovary, and not extending above it; limb 6-partite, the 
3 outer segments oval and subherbaceous, the 3 inner larger, sub- 
orbicular, petaloid, and with a fleshy scale at the base: stamens 6, 
abortive, reduced to subulate filaments placed in pairs opposite the 
exterior leaves of the perianth: ovary adhering to the tube of the 
perianth, 6-celled; ovules numerous in each cell; style very short, 
thick, single; stigmas 6, each of them bifid. Fruit an ovoid subherba- 
ceous berry with 6 cells, and numerous seeds attached to the walls of 
the dissepiments. 
An aquatic stoloniferous herb, with floating stalked roundish- 
reniform leaves, the petioles sheathing and auriculate at the base. 
Flowers rising out of the water, large, with delicate white inner 
perianth segments. Fruit submerged. 
The name of this genus of plants comes from the two Greek words, t¢wp, water, and 
xaprc, delight, the pride of the water. 
SPECIES lI—HYDROCHARIS MORSUS-RAN &. Linn, 
Pirate MCCCCXLIV. i 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. VIL. Tab. LXII. Fig. 112. 
Billot, F\. Gall. et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2937. 
a 
The only known species. . 
In ditches and ponds. Not very common, but generally distributed 
over England, except in the extreme north, and common in the fens 
of the eastern counties. are and local in Ireland, and found chiefly 
in the middle and north of the island. 
England, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer. 
Root-fibres very long. Rootstock with more or less elongated 
runner-like stolons, producing at their apex new plants, which are at 
first developed as ovoid bulbs, the new plants thus formed again pro- 
ducing runners, so that late in the year a chain of plants exists, as 
in the strawbert ry. Leaves floating, all with stalks 1 to 6 inehes long; 
lamina orbicular, } to 2 inches in diameter, entire, the base deeply 
cordate, with incumbent lobes: when young the leaves are rolled up like 
those of Potamogeton natans, but soon become quite flat, subcoriaceous, 
shining and green above, dim and often purple beneath. Stipules 
scarious, transparent, their base adnate to the leaf-stalks. Male flowers 
1 to 11 inch across; spathe on a peduncle 1 to 2 inches long, membranous, 
containing 1 to 3 flowers in an umbel; pedicel of the male flowers 
1} to 14 inch long: sepals oblong, subherbaceous; petals orbicular, 
