304 ENDOGENOUS PLANTS. 



slightly wavy on the margin. Spikes oblong, few-flowered, about % of an inch In 

 length, on lateral peduncles an inch long ; sepals reddish-brown. 

 Bab. Flowing streams; Brandy wine : frequent. Fl. Aug. Fr. Octo. 



4. P. pauciflurus, Pursh. Stem very slender, flattish; leaves 

 narrowly linear and grass-like ; spike capitate, few-flowered. 

 FEW-FLOWERED POTAMOGETON. 



Stem 6 to 12 inches long, much branched, diffuse and suspended in the water. 

 Leaves 2 to 3 inches long, acute, somewhat keeled, the lower ones alternate, the 

 uppermost nearly opposite, or often subverticillate in fours. Spike about 4-flowered, 

 on a subclavate peduncle about half an inch long, in the axil of the upper leaves ; 

 sepals greenish-brown. 

 Hob. Pools, and sluggish rivulets : not very common. Fl. May. Fr. July. 



ORDER CIII. ALISMA^CEAE. 



Marsh herbs; stems scape-like; leaves sheathing at base; flowers perfect, or monoi- 

 cous, not on a spadix, f urnishsd with both calyx and corolla ; sepals and petals each 

 3, distinct ; stamens 6, or many, hypogynous ; ovaries 3, or many, becoming as 

 many 1- or 2-seeded#ocZs,or akenes; seeds ascending, or erect, without albumen. 



STJBOEDER ALISME^AE. 



Calyx green and persistent; corolla white and deciduous; embryo curved like a 

 horse-shoe; leaves radical, mostly with a lamina or blade, and along petiole. 



412. AMS'MA, L. 



[Said to be named from the Celtic, Alis, water; its usual place of growth.] 

 Flowers perfect. Petals roundish, involute in the bud. Stamens 6 ; 

 anthers introrse. Ovaries numerous, verticillate on a flattened re- 

 ceptacle, or disk, becoming angular coriaceous akene-like carpels, in 

 fruit. Smooth perennials : roots fibrous ; leaves several-nerved, with 

 connecting cross-veinlets ; scape with verticillate panicled branches ; 

 flowers rather small. 



1. A. PlantagO, L. Leaves lance-oblong, or oval, about 9- 

 nerved, abruptly acuminate, often rounded, or subcordate, at base ; 

 carpels obtusely triangular. 

 PLANTAIN ALISMA. Water Plantain. 



Leaves 4 to 6 inches long ; petioles 6 to 9 inches in length. Scape 1 to 2 feet high, 

 trigonous, fistular; panicle 12 to 15 inches long, pyramidal, with involucre-like 

 frrocfe at the base of the verticillate branches; pedicels, near an inch long, slender, 

 mostly in terminal verticils of 3 or 4. 

 Hob. Muddy rivulets, and miry places: frequent. FL July. Fr. Sept. 



06s. This belongs to a notable tribe of inert medicinal plants, 

 which once in an age, or so dabblers in quackery have the address 

 to impose upon the credulous, as being endowed with marvellous 

 virtues, in incurable or desperate stages of disease. Some years 

 ago, after Anagallis, and Scutellaria, had become rather obsolete, 

 as Newspaper cures for that terrible malady, Hydrophobia, the 

 Alisma was proclaimed, through the Gazettes, as a certain remedy; 

 and persons who ventured to express a doubt, were scarcely tolera- 

 ted, by the editorial fraternity ! This specific, however, soon shared 

 the fate of its predecessors ; and will probably be no more heard of, 

 until a future race of Empirics, in the cycle of "Progress," shall 

 again bring it forward. 



