LEMNACE.E. (dL( KWLLD FAMILY.) 551 



and a cluster of very large and broad entire veiny leaves, preceded in earliest 

 .spring by the nearly sessile spathes, which barely rise out of the ground. 

 (Xanie from o-u,uirAo/c^, connection, and napiros, fruit, in allusion to the coales- 

 cence of tlie ovaries into a compound fruit.) 



1 . S. fcetidus, Salisb. Leaves ovate, cordate, becoming 1 - 2'^ long, short- 

 petiolod ; spathc spotted and striped with j)urple and yellowish-green, ovate, 

 incurved; fruit (in autumn) 2-3' in diam., in decay shedding the bulblet-like 

 seeds, which are 4-6" long. —Bogs and moist grounds, N. Scotia to N. C, 

 west to Minn, and Iowa. 



5. ORONTIUM, L. Goldextm n. 



Spathe incomplete and distant, merely a leaf-slicath investing the lower part 

 of the slender scape, and bearing a small and imperfect bract-like blade. 

 Plowers crowded all over the narrow spadix, perfect ; the loAver with 6 con- 

 cave sepals and 6 stamens ; the upper ones with 4. Filaments flattened ; au- 

 tliers 2-celled, opening obliquely lengthwise. Ovary 1 celled, with an anatropous 

 ovule ; stigma sessile, entire. Fruit a green utricle. Seed without albumen. 

 Embryo thick and fleshy, " with a large concealed cavity at the summit, the 

 plumule curved in a groove on the outside." (Torr.) — An aquatic perennial, 

 with a deep rootstock, long-petioled and entire oblong and nerved floating 

 leaves, and the spadix terminating the elongated scape ; its rather club-shaped 

 emersed apex as thick as the spadix. (Origin of the name obscure.) 



1. O. aquaticum, L. — Ponds, Mass. to Fla. May. 



6. ACORUS, L. Sweet Flag. Calamus. 



Spadix cylindrical, lateral, sessile, emerging from the side of a simple 2-edged 

 scape Avhich resembles the leaves, densely covered with perfect flowers. Se- 

 pals 6, concave. Stamens 6; filaments linear; anthers kidney-shaped, 1-celled, 

 opening across. Ovary 2 - 3-celled, with several pendulous orthotropous ovules 

 in each cell ; stigma minute. Fruit at length dry, gelatinous inside, 1 -few- 

 seeded. Embryo in the axis of albumen. — Pungent aromatic plants, espe- 

 cially the thick creeping rootstocks {calamus of the shops), which send up 2- 

 edged sword-like leaves, and scapes somewhat like them, bearing the spadix on 

 one edge ; the upper and more foliaceous prolongation sometimes considered as 

 a kind of open spathc. ("A/fopas, the ancient name, of no known meaning.) 



1. A. Calamus, L. Scape leaf-like and prolonged far beyond the (yel- 

 lowish-green) spadix. — Margins of rivulets, swamps, etc., N. Scotia to Fla., 

 west to Minn., Iowa, and E. Kan. 



Order P24. LE3INACE^. (Duckwei-d Family.) 



Minute steniless plants, Jloating free on the water, destitute of distinct 

 stem and foliage, being merely a frond, producing one or few monoecious 

 flowers from the edge or upper surface, and commonly hanging roots from 

 underneath; ovules rising from the base of the cell. Fruit a 1 - 7-seeded 

 utricle. Seed large ; the apex or radicular extremity of the seed-coat sepa- 

 rable as an operculum or lid (as in Cabomba, etc.). Embryo straight, sur- 

 rofinded by fleshy or sometimes very scanty albumen. — The simplest, and 



