482 



ENDOGENOUS OR MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



or two stamens ; the fertile, of a one-celled ovary ; in fruit a 

 utricle : they are a kind of minute and greatly reduced Aracese. 



902. Ord, Naiadaceffi (the Pond-weed Family}. Water-plants, 

 with cellular leaves, and sheathing stipules or bases : the flowers 

 inconspicuous, sometimes perfect. Perianth simple or none. Sta- 

 mens definite. Ovaries solitary, or two to four and distinct, one- 

 seeded. Albumen none. Embryo straight or curved. Ex. Po- 

 tamogeton (Pond-weed), Najas, Ruppia, Zostera; the two latter in 

 salt or brackish water. 



903. Ord, AlismaceSB (the Water-Plantain Family). Marsh herbs, 

 with the leaves and scapes usually arising from a creeping rhizo- 

 ma ; the former either linear, or bearing a flat limb, which is ribbed 

 or nerved, but the veinlets commonly reticulated. Flowers regu- 

 lar, perfect or polygamous, mostly in racemes or panicles, not on a 

 spadix. Perianth double. Sepals three. Petals three. Seeds 

 solitary in each carpel or cell, straight or curved, destitute of albu- 



'men. Ex. Alisma (Water-Plantain), Sagittaria (Arrowhead); 

 belonging to the proper Alisma Family, which has the seed (and 

 consequently the embryo) curved or doubled upon itself. Triglo- 

 chin and Scheuchzeria chiefly constitute the suborder JUNCAGINEJE ; 



FIG. 1075. Whole plant of Lemna minor, magnified, bearing a staminate monandrous flow- 

 er. 1076. An individual with a diandrous perfect flower; which at 1077 is seen separate, with 

 its spathe, highly magnified. 1078. Flower of Lemna gibba, much magnified. 1079. Vertical 

 highly magnified section of the pistil and the contained ovule of Lemna minor. 1080. The 

 fruit, and 1081, its section, showing the seed. 1082. Section through the highly magnified 

 seed and large embryo. 



