LopkotOCCD'pflS.] CLII. ALISMACE.'E (wRIGHT). 211 



near its apex ; bracts widely ovate, obtuse, lin. long ; flowers herma- 

 phrodite and male. Sepals broadly ovate, obtuse, flat, erect or sheathing 

 in fruit. Petals cuneate, a little longer than the sepals, fugacious. 

 Stamens !)-12 (G-10 in the male flowers); filaments complanate ; 

 anthers elongate, more or less sagittate at the base, shorter than the 

 filaments. Ovary compressed, rudimentary in the male flower ; style 

 thick, oblique. Achenes much laterally compressed, with a prominent 

 toothed rib on the back and front. Seed slightly rugose. — Scujlttarla 

 cordifolia, Roxb. Hort. Beng. 0«, and Fl. Ind. iii. 047 ; Kunth, Enuni. 

 iii. IGl ; Benth. Fl. Hongk. 84G ; Schweinf. Beitr. Fl. Aethiop. 2:ir). 

 .S'. nj/mphceifolia, Hochst. in Flora, 1842, Beibl. loo. >S'. f/uaijamnais, 

 H. B. & K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. PI. i. 250; Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. ;ji;i. 

 Lophiocarpus guyanensis, Micheli in DC. Monogr. Phan. iii. 62 ; 

 Buchen. in Engl. Jahrb. ii. 484. 



Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Heudelot ! 



Nile liand. Kordofan ; in shallow stagnant pools at Tejara, Kotschy, 423 ! 



Also in Madagascar, Tropical Asia northwards to Hongkong, and Troiiical 

 America from Mexico to Paraguay. 



4. ECHINODORUS, L. C. Rich. ; Benth. et Hook. f. 

 Gen. PI. iii. 1006. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals :3, herbaceous, persistent, reflexed 

 or erect after flowering. Petals 8, larger than the sepals, deciduous. 

 Stamens G to many, hypogynous ; filaments subulate, compressed ; 

 anthers oblong or linear-oblong, dorsifixed near the base. Carpels 

 numerous, distinct, imbricate on an oblong receptacle, obovoid, attenuate 

 into a persistent oblique style ; stigma minute ; ovule basal, erect, 

 anatropous. Achenes many, obovoid or oblanceolate, congested into a 

 head, strongly ribbed and crowned by the rigid aristate style, Seed 

 oblong, compressed ; testa membranous ; embryo hooked ; radicle 

 thickened at the end. — Annual or perennial, acaulescent, scapigerous, 

 often tall herbs. Leaves long petioled ; lamina elliptic, cordate, 

 lanceolate or sagittate, usually with pellucid dots or lines. Flowers in 

 many-flowered verticils on narrow straight racemes, 3-bracteate at the 

 nodes or (in the African species) reduced to a single flower ; bracteoles 

 many ; pedicels very short, rigid. 



Species about 14, in Tropical and North Tenvperate America. 



1. E. humilis, Buchen. in Pringsh. Jahrh, vii. 28. A small herb. 

 Rhizome very short ; rootlets filiform. Leaves ovate, membranous, up 

 to 14 by 8 lin., a few oblong-lanceolate and 18 by 3 lin., acute or 

 shortly acuminate, base rounded or slightly decurrent, with ^» nerves 

 radiating from the apex of the petiole and converging towards the apex 

 of the blade ; petiole slender, up to 4 in. long, but usually very much 

 f^horter. Scapes shorter than the leaves, 1 -flowered ; flowers erect. 

 Sepals ovate, obtuse, 2-2J lin. long. Petals longer than the .sepals, 

 white. Stamens 6 (or 0, ex Micheli), 1 h lin. long ; anthers about lialf 



