TROLLIUS. 777 



The Water- Soldier, or Water-Aloe, is a remarkably curious aquatic 

 plant. The plant, after flowering 1 , sinks to the bottom of the water, 

 and there deposits its seeds, and sends out round long simple runners, 

 which terminate iu buds, and expand into new plants ; at the same 

 time it puts out numerous long round simple fibrous roots, and esta- 

 blishes itself in the mud. As the following summer advances the 

 roots elongate, the plant more fully developes itself, it rises to the 

 surface of the water, puts out its flower buds, which expand, and the 

 beautiful pure white petals are exposed in the sun, it fulfils its ap- 

 pointed functions, surrounded by, and protected from injury by the 

 phalanx of its sword-like leaves ; it then again sinks to the bottom of 

 the water, charged with its numerous progeny, to perform the following 

 year the same remarkable process of its parent. 



ORDER III". 



POLYGY'NIA. MANY PISTILS. 



GENUS XVI. TROL'LIUS. LINN. Globe-flower. 

 Nat. Ord, RANUNCCLA'CEJE. DE CAND. 



GEN. CHAR. Calyx petaloid, of from five to many deciduous pieces. 

 Petals five or more, small, linear, with a nectariferous depression 

 above the claw. Capsules numerous, sessile, many seeded follicles. 

 Name "said to be derived from troll, or trolen, a ball or globe 

 in old German, and bearing the same meaning as our English 

 word Globe-flower" 



\. T. Europ'ceus, Linn. (Fig. 880.) Mountain Globe-floiver. Calyx 

 of about fifteen pieces, converging into a globe ; petals from five to 

 ten, about as long as the stamens ; leaves palmated, with deeply cat 

 and serrated segments. 



English Botany, t. 28. English Flora, vol. iii. p. 56. Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 220. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 12. 



Root of stout fleshy fibres. Stem from one to two feet high, round, 

 smooth, hollow, erect, simple, or slightly branched upwards, bearing 

 two or three sessile leaves, the radical ones numerous, spreading, on 

 long slender footstalks, dilated at the base, and with the stem enveloped 

 with the dark brown withered remains of the last year's leaves, pal- 

 mated, the segments oblong, wedge-shaped, and deeply cut and ser- 

 rated, a dark shining green above, pale beneath, and branched over 

 with veins. Flowers terminal, solitary, large, globose, of a golden 

 yellow colour, the calyx of about fifteen roundish concave converging 

 pieces, petaloid, the outer ones rarely tinged with green. Petals from 



