45^ 



HYDROCHARIDEiE 



flowers which grow 2 — 3 together from a pellucid 2-leaved spathe ; 

 stamens 9 — 1 2 ; ovary 6-chambered, many ovules ; styles 6. — 

 Ponds and ditches ; not general. The cells of the seed-coat 

 gelatinise in water and emit their spiral thickening. (Name 

 from the Greek hudor, water, and chdris, elegance.) — Fl. July, 

 August. Perennial. 



ELOD^A CANADENSIS 



{American Water-weed). 



hydr6charis m6rsus-rAn^ (Frog-bit). 



3. Stratiotes (Water Soldier), represented only by the one 

 species *S. aloides, a submerged plant with runners creeping in 

 the mud ; its leaves all radical, stiff, ascending, sword-shaped, 

 spinously serrate, like those of an Aloe, brittle, dark green ; 

 -flower-stalk 5 — 6 in. high, bearing at its summit a 2-leaved sheath, 

 containing either several delicate white staminate flowers, each 

 with 12 or more stamens and numerous staminodes, or one 

 carpellate flower with 6 2-fid styles and a 6-chambered, many- 



