Orderi2^. Aroidece. 365 



Konkan jungles. Deccan peninsula (ff.). It is easily known by 

 the cnrious irregular holes in the leaves. 



11. POTHOS. 



P. scandens. A smooth parasite with many thick stems ; 

 leaves lanceolate, jointed with the petiole, which is winged and 

 the same shape as the leaf, with stem-clasping base ; spadices 

 axillary solitary, roundish, peduncle with a bract ; berries red, 

 nearly round. 



Kajapore. Ghaut jungles, pretty common (-D.). Konkan (6?.). 

 Throughout India on walls and tree trunks 



12. ACORUS. Sweet Sedge. 



A. calamus. Sheath sword-shaped, several times longer 

 than the spadix, which is thick and cylindrical ; leaves three 

 to six feet long, the margins waved. Yekand. 



Cultivated in gardens (Z>.). Wild in S. Konkan (&.). Throughout 

 India wild or cultivated (//.) It; is an English aquatic plant, some- 

 times called the Sweet flag ; it has been put in other orders, but the 

 spadix is unmistakable. Linnaeus called it the only aromatic plant of 

 northern climates. The root is said to have been employed medi- 

 cinally since the days of Hippocrates, and it is also said to be so 

 offensive to the cobra as to act as a preservative. 



ORDER 125. LEMNACEJE. 



Very small annual floating green scale-like plants, flowers 

 naked or in a spathe, perianth none, stamens one or two. 



These are what in England are called Duckweeds, and there being 

 no distinction of stem and leaf, fronds are spoken of. 



1. LEMNA. Fronds with one or more roots, bearing the 

 flowers in clefts on the margin. 



2. WOLFFLA. Fronds like grains of sand, rootless, bearing 

 the flowers on the upper surface. 



1. LEMNA. 



* L. trisulca. Fronds joined crosswise, oblong lanceolate, 

 toothed near the apex, roots solitary. 

 In standing water (D.). Konkan 



This is the largest of the several Indian species, the fronds being 

 as much as half an inch long. It is the ivy-leafed duckweed of 

 English ponds, but does not seem so common in India as two or three 

 other species, which however I do not find definitely ascribed to 

 W. India. Balfour thus describes the genus : " The flowers are very 

 simple, one male and the other female, without perianth; enclosed in 



