CHAPTEE XVII. 



BUTOMlCE^ ALISMACE^E JTOCAGINACE^a TYPH- 

 ICE^E AEiCE^] ACOElCE^ LEMMCE^ N AID- 

 ACE^ 



" And nearer to the river's trembling edge 

 There grew broad Flag flowers, purple prankt with white, 

 And starry river -buds among the Sedge ; 

 And floating Water Lilies, broad and bright, 

 Which lit the Oak that overhung the hedge 

 With moonlight beams of their own watery light ; 

 And Bullrushes, and Reeds of such deep green 

 As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen." 



PERCY BYSSHE SHELLET. 



WE have now but a few orders of plants before we come to the 

 Glumaceous order, of which the Grasses are the prevailing 

 members. Of these intervening families the most part are 

 water plants. The first order is that of the FLO WEEING 

 SUSH ; it has but one British representative. This, and the 

 order succeeding it, are distinguished by having both calyx 

 and corolla. 



The Flowering Eush (Butomus umbellatus, Plate XVII. , 

 fig. 2), is a very stately plant, growing four or five feet high, 

 with long triangular leaves. The flowers grow in a terminal 

 umbel, at least twelve in each cluster ; they have three crimson 

 sepals, three rose-coloured petals, nine stamens, and six styles. 

 It is the only British plant with nine stamens. The flowers 

 are as large as those of the Marsh Marigold. Old writers 

 speak of it as " the Grassie Eush." It grows freely in the 

 Avon between Warwick and Guy's Cliff, and it is an ornament 

 of the ponds at Longleat, the seat of the Marquis of Bath. 



The WATEB PLANTAIN order is the second gifted both with 

 calyx and corolla ; it contains two families the Water Plantain 



