411 



The flower has five perigone-leaves and five white nectary- 

 leaves which are about twice as long as the perigone-leaves; 

 the nectary-leaves have a yellow claw, and bear a tubular cornet- 

 shaped nectary (Fig. 50, A]. There are 6 — 10 stamens, which 

 are longer than the head of carpels. The fruits are wrinkled 

 and hairy, and almost without a beak. Of the flower-buds, 

 in the material from Iceland (Jan. 10) which has been investi- 

 gated, the lower and older ones had partially-barren stamens, 

 while no such stamens were observed in the upper buds. The 

 diameter of the flower is 3 — 5 mm. (Greenland). As far as 1 

 know, no observations on the flower-biology of the species 

 have been published, but as other species in the genus it is 

 probably homogamous. 



The flowering period in Arctic Norway is from the be- 

 ginning of July to the middle of September, and ripe fruit was 

 observed in the middle of August (Norman). 



The fruit is probably dispersed by the agency of the water 

 (cf. KøLPiN Ravn, Bot. Tidsskr. , XIX). 



The fruits of other species of Batrachium are capable of 

 germinating during the year in which they ripen (Gelert, Sylvén, 

 1906, p. 279), and in Scandinavia the seedlings pass the winter 

 in a green condition. 



Batr. confervoides grows, by preference, in small pools 

 and in rills, no doubt usually in shallow water; but Krddse 

 (1. c.) found it at Egedesminde in West Greenland growing in 

 a depth of as much as 3 m., and found that it sets fruit but 

 rarely in water shallower than l*6m. Porsild (I.e.) saw it in 

 Disco in water not shallower than 30 cm. and especially in the 

 neighbourhood of large boulders and then always upon the side 

 most exposed to wind and water. In Arctic Norway it does 

 not appear to regard the temperature of the water, as it sets 

 ripe fruit both in streams with affluents from snowy mountains 

 and also in water with a relatively high temperature (Norman). 



