675 



same stem, but froiii buds differing in character. This may also ac- 

 count for the fact of Mr. Woods being unable to detect submersed 

 leaves in the plants he examined at Wareham ; (see Phy tol, iii. 266). 

 I have, however, succeeded in meeting with the submersed leaves in 

 a small but characteristic condition, attached to young flowering 

 shoots of Q^nanthe fluviatilis. Indeed, the lowermost nodes of the 

 flowering shoots are almost always bare of foliage, either from early 

 destruction of the submersed leaves, or from the lower nodes of the 

 shoot being abortive, the latter supposition being the more probable. 



The barren or rooted end of the fully-developed plant is rotting or 

 decaying in the month of July ; and at the same time the seven or eight 

 young plants, which are to take the place of their predecessor in the 

 season to come, are to be seen attached to the various nodes of the 

 stem. The fully-formed submersed leaves become brown early in the 

 summer, and have a worn-out appearance, from being coated over 

 with deposit. Probably this decay is occasioned by the vitality of the 

 leaves being interfered with by the twisting and sti'aining to which 

 they are exposed, from the frequent disturbance of the current, and 

 of the level of the waters, produced by floods in winter and spring, and 

 by the occasional drawing off of the water in the summer, by the mil- 

 lers. However this may be, the submersed leaves soon decay after 

 the flowering season, as, I believe, does the entire stem, of which they 

 form the extremity, so soon as the brood of young plants which spring 

 out of it is fit to maintain an independent existence. 



Having for the last year or two collected specimens of CEnanthe 

 fluviatilis for the Botanical Society of London, I made a point of se- 

 lecting the smaller green autumnal submersed leaves, rather than the 

 large, dirty-looking remains of those that had lived through the pre- 

 vious winter. Attached to the rooted extremities of these green au- 

 tumnal specimens, was frequently what seemed like a hard lump of 

 dirt, and which was very carefully washed off, for the sake of giving 

 the specimens a neat appearance. Now, indeed, this lump would have 

 a greater degree of interest connected with it, as being probably the 

 remains of the node and internode of the parent stem from which the 

 young plant originated. 



Allowing the above observations the credit of being correct, it seems 

 tolerably clear that the duration of CEnanthe fluviatilis, Colem., is of 

 a biennial rather than of a perennial character. The existence of 

 CEnanthe fluviatilis would not be much prolonged in our rivers and 

 the ditches connected with them, in the abundance it now is, if it 

 were dependent for reproduction on fruit alone ; for its flowering 



