112 HIPPUEIDACE.2E. 



tiana). This is a pretty plant, with bright green lance-shaped 

 leaves, and slender spikes of white or pinkish flowers. The 

 sepals, petals, and stamens are only two. 



There is an Alpine species, of lower growth, and less 

 branched ; its leaves are heart-shaped. The Common En- 

 chanter's Nightshade I have found frequently in woods. 

 Although called after an enchanter, the plant has no charm 

 except quiet beauty ; and it is supposed that it owes its name 

 to the darkness and gloom of the places where it grows. 



The MARE'S-TAIL order are all water plants. Fanny reaped 

 a rich harvest of them one day at Clevedon. There is a large 

 tract of lowland extending two or three miles inland called 

 Kenmore ; this ground is intersected with ditches. In one of 

 these ditches the common Mare's-tail (Hippiiris vulgaris), 

 grows ; it roots in the muddy bottom, and its long stem soon 

 appears above the water; quickly one whorl of awl-shaped 

 leaves after another arises, in the axils of which grow tiny 

 crimson flowers, each boasting one stamen and one stigma, 

 and no petal. 



Her next trophy was the Spiked Water Milfoil (Myriophyl- 

 lum spicatum, fig. 5). It has whorls of four grass-shaped, 

 pinnate leaves, and spikes of small pink flowers, with four 

 petals, four styles, and eight stamens. There was a tangled 

 mass of this in one broad ditch ; most part of the plants under 

 water, and only the pink spikes rising into the air. 



The Whorled Water Milfoil has its flowers in a whorl like 

 the Mare's-tail, but we have not found a specimen. 



In a clearer ditch she found the Vernal and Autumnal Water 

 Starworts. The former species (Callitriche verna, fig. 6), has 

 broadish leaves, the upper four or six floating on the surface, 

 and looking like a green star; while the tiny flowers, with 

 their one style and stamen, proceed from their axils. 



The Autumnal Starwort begins to flower in June ; its leaves 

 are more slender, and it grows more under water. 



There is another species, with keeled seeds, called the 



