174 HYDROCHARITACE&. [ LAGAROSIPHON. 



L. Roxburgh!!, Benih. in Gen. PL Hi, 451 ; F. B. I. F, 659 ; 

 Prain Beng. PL 995 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 669. Vallisneria alter- 

 nifolia, Roxb. Fl. 2nd. Hi, 750. 



Stems filiform, 2-3 ft. long ; roots fibrous ; upper branches floating* 

 Leaves sessile, alternate and opposite, 3-4 in. long, oblong'-lanceolate, 

 acute, minutely serrulate. MALE flowers : Spathe ovoid, at length 

 2-valved, enclosing many minute shortly stalked flowers. Sepals 

 shortly oblong, pink. Petals about as long as sepals, white. Stamens 

 2 ; anthers opening transversely. FEM. flowers : Spathe J in. long,. 

 tubular, 2-fid. Ovary lanceolate, tipped with a filiform flexuous 

 beak. 



Common within the area in tanks and streams. DISTRIB. : Throughout 

 the plains of India and in Ceylon, extending to China and Japan. 



3. VALLISNERIA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 660. 



Submerged tufted stemless stoloniferous herbs. Leaves very 

 long, linear. Flowers dioecious, the males numerous, minute, in 

 an ovoid 3-lobed shortly peduncled spathe, the females solitary 

 in a tubular 3-toothed spathe terminal on a very long filiform 

 spiral scape ; sepals 3, petals 3, minute or none. MALE flowers. r 

 Stamens 1-3, filaments rather thick, anthers didymous. Pistillode 

 none. FEM. flowers : Staminodes 3, each 2-fid. Ovary narrow, 

 not produced upwards ; stigmas 3, broad, notched, ovules numerous. 

 Fruit linear, included in the spathe. Seeds numerous, oblong, 

 testa membranous. Species about 4, in the warmer regions of 

 both hemispheres. 



V. spiralis, Linn. Sp. PI 1015 ; F. B. I. V., 660 ; Watt E. D. ; 

 Prain Beng. PL 996 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 669. V. spiraloides, Roxb. 

 Fl. Ind. Hi, 750. 



Leaves radical, narrowly linear, varying in length with the depth of 

 the water, translucent, entire, or serrulate at the tips. MALE flowers 

 many, minute, in shortly stalked spathes ; when ready to open they 

 become detached and rise to the surface of the water, the expanded 

 perianth acting as a float. FEMALE flowers solitary within a 3~ 

 toothed spathe and borne on a long spiral stalk, the uncoiling of 

 which brings the flower to the surface to be fertilized by the floating 

 males, after which the female scape coils up again into a close spiral 



