CLASS V. ORDER I.] HOTTONIA. 247 



GENUS XIII. HOTTONIA. LINN. Feather/oil. 

 Nat. Ord. PRIMULAC '.<. VENT. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx five parted. Corolla salver-shaped, with a short 

 tube ; the limb of five flat lobes. Stamens nearly sessile at the 

 mouth of the tube. Capsule globose, tipped with the long per- 

 sistent style. Named after Pierre Hotton, a Professor at Leyden 

 during the latter half of the seventeenth century. 



1. H. palus'tris, Linn. (Fig. 327.) common Water Violet, or feather- 

 foil. Flowers in whorls, on a long naked stalk ; corolla much longer 

 than the calyx ; leaves pectinated. 



English Botany, t. 364. English Flora, vol. i. p. 277. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 108. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 185. 



Root long slender whorled fibres. Leaves in whorls, dark green, 

 crowded, two to four inches long, beneath the surface of the water, 

 having a mid-rib, with very numerous narrow simple or branched seg- 

 ments, divided in a pectinate or pectinato-pinnatifid manner ; from 

 the axis of the leaves are frequently sent out long spreading branches, 

 crowded with whorls of leaves, all submerged. Stem rising out of the 

 water erect, from one to two feet long, smooth, round, simple. Flowers 

 in five or six terminal whorls, each whorl of from four to eight flowers, 

 on short pedicles, arising from the base of a narrow scale nearly its own 

 length. Calyx divided to the base in five linear segments, scattered 

 over more or less profusely with short glandular hairs, as also are 

 the pedicles and the stem between the whorls. Corolla of a delicate 

 pale purple or rose colour. The limb of five flat spreading ovate or 

 notched segments. The tube about as long as the calyx, cylindrical. 

 Stamens five; the filaments as long as the anther, inserted about 

 the middle of the tube. Anthers ovate oblong around the orifice of 

 the tube. Style as long, or longer than the tube, sometimes not so 

 long, thickened at the base. Stigma globose. Capsule globose, sur- 

 rounded by the persistent calyx, and crowned with the enlarged style, 

 opening with five valves. Seeds numerous. 



Habitat. Ditches, pools, and streams of water; not uncommon in 

 England ; Downpatrick, Ireland ; not found in Scotland. 



Perennial; flowering in June and July. 



This beautiful species of aquatic plant is highly ornamental to the 

 drains and ditches or slow streams of water, in various parts of Eng- 

 land; about Lincoln it grows profusely in the clay, and often not less 

 beautifully in the gravelly districts of many other counties. It is 

 cultivated with success amongst other aquatic plants in streams of 

 water and ponds in pleasure grounds, forming an admirable cover- 

 ing for fish, and at the same time its spreading much divided 

 leaves, sending from their bosom their elegant stem of flowers make 



