484 PONrEDERIACE,. (PICKKUEL-WEED FAMILY.) 



divisions colored alike, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, the whole together 

 sometimes revolute-coiled alter flowering, withering away, or the base 

 thickened-persistent and enclosing the fruit Anthers introrse. Ovules 

 anatropous. Style 1 : stigma 3-lobed or 6-toothed. Fruit a perfectly or 

 incompletely 3-celled many-seeded pod, or a 1-celled 1-seeded utricle. Em- 

 bryo slender, in floury albumen. 



Synopsis. 



1. PONTEDEKIA. Perianth 2-lipped, its fleshy base enclosing the 1-seeded utricle. Sta- 



mens 6. Spike many-flowered. 



2. UETEKANTIIKUA. Perianth salver-shaped, withering-fugacious. Pod many-steded. 



Stamens 3, unequal, of 2 forms. Spathe 1 - few-flowered. 

 8. SCIiOLLEKA. Perianth salver-shaped, regular. Stamens 3, alike Spathe 1-flowered. 



1. PONTEDERIA, L. PICKEREL-WEED. 



Perianth funnel-form, 2-lipped ; the 3 upper divisions united to form the 3- 

 lohcd upper lip ; the 3 lower spreading, and their claws, which form the lower 

 pait of the curving tube, more or less separate or separable down to the base : 

 after flowering the tube is revolute-coiled from the apex downwards, and its 

 fleshy-thickened persistent base encloses the fruit. Stamens 6, the 3 lower ex- 

 serted with elongated filaments; the 3 upper (often sterile or imperfect) with 

 very short filaments, unequally inserted lower down : anthers oval, blue. Ovary 

 3-celled ; two of the cells empty, the other with a single suspended ovule. Utri- 

 cle 1 -celled, filled with the single seed. Stout herbs, growing in shallow water, 

 with thick creeping rootstocks, producing erect long-pctioled mostly heart-shaped 

 leaves, and a 1 -leaved scape, terminated by a spike of violet-blue ephemeral flow- 

 ers. Root-leaves Avith a sheathing stipule within the petiole. (Dedicated to 

 Pontedcra, Professor at Padua at the beginning of the last century.) 



1. P. COrdCata, L. Leaves arrow-heart-shaped, blunt ; spike dense, from 

 a spathe-like bract. Var. ANGUSTIF6LIA (P. angustifolia, Purufi) has triangu- 

 lar-elongated and tapering leaves scarcely heart-shaped at the base. Common. 

 July- Sept. Calyx-tube in fruit crested with 6 toothed ridges. Upper lobe of 

 the perianth marked with a pair of small yellow spots. 



2. HETERANTHERA, Ruiz & Pav. MUD PLANTAIN. 



Perianth salver-form with a slender tube ; the spreading limb somewhat equal- 

 ly 6-parted, ephemeral, soon withering or decaying. Stamens 3 ; the 2 upper 

 wiili their filaments thickened in the middle and bearing ovate (yellow) anthers; 

 the other with a longer filament bearing a larger oblong or arrow-shaped Q 

 ish) anther. Pod incompletely 3-cellcd, many-seeded. Creeping or floating 

 low herbs, with chiefly rounded long-petioled leaves, and a 1 - few-flowered 

 spathe bursting from the sheathing side or base of a petiole. Flowers blue or 

 white. (Name from cV/pa, different, and dvOypd, anther.) 



1. H. reilif6rmiS, Ruiz & Pav. Leaves roiwd-kitliicy-s/t'ii >c<! : spnthcS- 

 5-flowered ; flowers white. Muddy margins of streams, S. New York to Illi- 

 nois, and southward. Aug. 



