192 NAIADACE.E. Zostera, 



closed in the dilated membranous base of a leaf. Anther 1 -celled, sessile ; pollen 

 thread-like. Ovary attached near its apex, beaked by a short style, with 2 linear 

 deciduous stigmas, and a single pendulous orthotropous ovule. Fruit utricular, 

 oblong. Seed with subcrustaceous testa. Embryo split longitudinally and enclosing 

 the long linear curved plumule. Stout submersed marine perennial herbs, with 

 creeping and rooting stems or rootstock, and alternate elongated grass-like ribbon- 

 shaped entire leaves. 



Only 4 species, two of them peculiar to Australia and one to the Old World. 



1. Z. marina, Linn. Stems rather fleshy, often elongated : leaves with long 

 sheathing bases, 3 - 7-nerved, obtuse, one to several feet in length, 2 to 4 lines 

 broad ; fruiting leaves jointed at the base of the spathe, which terminates with a 

 more or less elongated leaf-like summit : spadix 2 to 4 inches long, 10 -20 -fruited, 

 without appendages : seed thick-oblong, 1 ^ lines long, longitudinally striate. 

 Nees, Gen. iii. t. 42 ; Reichenb. Icon. Fl. Germ. vii. t. 4. 



Common in the shoal water of bays, etc., below low-water mark, from Alaska to Oregon, and 

 probably farther southward ; also on the Arctic and North Atlantic coasts, the shores of Europe, 

 and of northeastern Asia. The smaller form (var. angustifolia, Hornem. ; Z. angustifolia, 

 Reichenb. 1. c., t. 3), with narrow 1 -nerved leaves, is also reported from Alaska. 



3. PHYLLOSPADIX, Hook. 



Flowers dioecious (1), the staminate unknown. Ovaries without perianth, sessile 

 in two vertical rows alternately upon the face of a submembranous broadly linear 

 sessile spadix, which is enclosed in the dilated membranous base of a leaf-like spathe 

 and has within the margin on each side a series of short dilated foliaceous ap- 

 pendages as many as the ovaries ; attachment of the ascending ovaries above the 

 base : stigmas 2, linear, sessile, deciduous. Ovule pendulous, orthotropous. Fruit 

 coriaceous, indehiscent. Embryo straight, entire, somewhat pitted on one side. 

 Perennial submerged marine herbs, with thick rootstocks, slender stems, and elon- 

 gated linear leaves. 



Only the following species, peculiar to the western coast. 



1. P. Torreyi, Watson. Stem slender, and leaves much elongated (3 to 6 feet), 

 less than a line wide, with very long sheaths (2 to 10 inches), flat, faintly 1 -nerved, 

 coriaceous : peduncles short, broad and somewhat channelled, one or two axillary at 

 each joint of the stem : the dilated portion of the spathe 1 to 2 inches long, leaf- 

 like above: the enclosed spadix 1 lines wide; appendages ovate-oblong, acute, 2| 

 to 3 lines long, within the margin of the spadix and above the attachment of the 

 corresponding ovaries : ovaries 15 to 20 or more, cordate-sagittate and somewhat 

 dorsally flattened and cariuate, 2i lines long ; stigmas half as long. Proc. Arner. 

 Acad. xiv. 303. 



Collected at Santa Barbara, in flower (Dr. Torrey), and with immature fruit, Miss S. A. Plum- 

 mer. The fruiting specimen described and figured by Ruprecht (Mem. Acad. Petersb. vii. 58, 

 t. 1, and 2, figs. 5-16) under the name of P. Scouleri, from the mouth of Russian River, 

 would seem from the shape of the fruit to be probably this species, though it is represented as 

 having the peduncles short, with a single spathe, and the leaves broader. Only one or two ripe 

 fruits were found by him, and none other have hitherto been collected. 



2. P. Scouleri, Hook. Very similar to the last, but stems short, peduncles 

 short and with a single spathe, leaves broader (2 lines wide) and 3-nerved ; and 

 ovaries ovate-oblong, rounded at base : fruit unknown. Fl. Bor.-Am. li. 171, t. 186 ; 

 Ruprecht, 1. c. in part, t. 2, figs. 1-4. 



Dundas Island, in the Columbia River (Scmder) ; Vancouver's Island (Lyall) ; apparently also 

 with the last at mouth o!' Russian River, 



