Sagittaria. JUNCACE^E. 201 



into the terminal style. Akenes obpyramidal, sharply ribbed. Mostly annuals, 

 with the habit of Sagittaria, the naked stems sparingly branched or simple, and the 

 flowers on rather short pedicels, in whorls of 3 to 6 or more. 



A genus of 8 or 10 species, belonging to tropical America and the Atlantic States. Only one 

 species approaches the borders of California. 



1 . E. r ostr at us, Engelm. Annual, with one or more stems from the same root, 

 erect, usually a foot or two high : leaves broadly ovate, cordate or truncate at base, 

 obtuse or acutish, rarely lanceolate with a cuneate base, 1 to 4 inches long, on rather 

 stout petioles : pedicels half an inch long : petals scarcely exceeding the sepals, 1 to 

 1 ^ lines long : stamens 1 2 : akenes very numerous, a line long, with a beak nearly 

 half as long, 4 - 5-ribbed and with intermediate veins. Gray, Manual, 492. 



On Mohave Creek (Bigelow), and frequent eastward from Texas to Illinois and Florida. 



4. SAGITTARIA, Linn. ARROW-HEAD. 



Flowers monoecious (or sometimes dioecious), the staminate ones above. Petals 

 usually conspicuous. Stamens numerous, rarely few. Ovaries very many, crowded 

 in globose heads, distinct. Akenes flat and membranously winged, abruptly beaked 

 by the very short style. Stoloniferous perennials, with milky juice, broadly sheath- 

 ing leaves often without a blade, and mostly simple stems bearing one to few whorls 

 of flowers usually in threes. 



A genus of both the Old and New World, including about 20 species, of which half are found 

 in the Atlantic States and Texas. But one has been detected on the Western Coast. 



1. S. variabilis, Engelm. 1. c. Rootstock slender, tuberiferous : scape ^ to 2 feet 

 high or more, angled : leaves very variable, ovate-sagittate or more or less narrowed 

 or even linear, acute, the similar lobes more or less divergent, acuminate ; the larger 

 leaves often 6 inches long or more : petals white, rounded, 4 to 6 lines long, exceed- 

 ing the sepals : filaments usually as long as or longer than the anthers, attenuate 

 upward : fruiting heads nearly half an inch in diameter : akenes rather broadly ob- 

 ovate, 1 J lines long, with a conspicuous acute horizontal beak at the upper angle. 



In Pitt River, among tules (Brewer) ; Plumas County (Mrs. Atnes, Mrs. Austin) and in North- 

 ern Nevada, and northward to British Columbia ; common east of the Rocky Mountains to the 

 Atlantic iu numerous forms. The large tubers (an inch or more in diameter) are used for food 

 by the Indians. S. Chinensis, Sims, a very similar species, is cultivated by the Chinese for the 

 same purpose, and is reported as introduced by them into California and to have been occasionally 

 found growing in marshes near their settlements. 



ORDER CXVI. JUNCACE^I. 



Flowers perfect, with a regular persistent perianth of 6 similar glumaceous seg- 

 ments in 2 rows, 6 nearly hypogynous included stamens (rarely 3) with persistent 

 filiform filaments and 2-celled anthers, and a superior 3-celled ovary (sometimes 

 1-celled with 3 parietal placentae) with 3 or many ascending anatropous ovules, a 

 single very short style, and 3 filiform stigmas (flowers very rarely dimerous through- 

 out) ; capsule loculicidally 3-valved ; seeds with membranous or cellular testa, often 

 caudate or appendaged ; embryo minute, thick, enclosed within the base of the 

 fleshy albumen. Rushes or sedge-like herbs, mostly cespitose perennials or with 

 creeping rhizomes, with terete hollow or spongy usually simple stems, and alternate 

 sheathing leaves, either flat, channelled, or terete ; flowers small, usually sessile, 

 scarious-bracteolate, in cymes or panicles, subumbellate clusters or spicate heads. 



