MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 21 
38. ALISMACEZ. WaATER-PLANTAIN FAMILY. 
Annual or perennial marsh herbs, usually with creeping run- 
ners or rootstocks. Stems scape-like. Leaves long-petioled, 
sheathing at the base ; petiole rounded ; blade nerved, netted, 
or sometimes wanting. Flowers in racemes or panicles, per- 
fect, moncecious or dicwcious; pedicels in bracted whorls. 
Sepals 3, persistent, petals 3 or wanting. Stamens 6 or more. 
Ovaries few or many, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Style short or none. 
Fruit a 1-seeded akene.* 
I. ALISMA, L. 
Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves erect or floating, blades 
prominently ribbed and netted, or even pinnately veined. 
Scapes erect, becoming longer than the leaves, cylindrical, 
spongy. Flowers perfect, in paniculate 3-bracted umbels, 
small, white or pink. Stamens 6-9. Ovaries numerous in 
one or more whorls on a flat receptacle. Fruit 1-seeded 
akenes which are ribbed on the back and sides.*. 
1. A. Plantago, L. WaAtTER PLANTAIN. Perennial; root fibrous. 
Leaves ovate or somewhat cordate, 5-7-nerved when erect, floating 
leaves narrower and sometimes linear. Scapes usually single ; pan- 
icle 1-2 ft. long; flowering branches whorled, subtended by three 
narrow, striate bracts; pedicels slender, elongated. Ovaries 15-20 
in a single whorl; base of the short style persistent, forming a beak 
at the inner angle of the akene. Akenes obliquely obovate, 2-3- 
keeled on the back. Common in ponds and muddy places.* 
Il. SAGITTARIA, L. 
Perennial ; rootstocks mostly knobby or tuber-bearing. 
Seapes erect or decumbent. Leaves long-petioled, sheathing 
at the base, the blade round and netted, or wanting. Flowers 
moncecious or dicecious, racemed in 3-bracted whorls of threes, 
the upper flowers usually staminate. Sepals 3, persistent. 
Petals 3, withering-persistent or deciduous. Stamens few or 
many. Ovaries in globose heads, 1-ovuled ; style short, per- 
sistent. Fruit a subglobose head of flattened akenes.* 
