Plants of the Punjab, 



626 



WATEE PLANTS. 

 Herbs with Opposite Exstipulate Simple Leaves, 

 Petals united. 



Ottelia alismoides, 



Hydrocharitaoeje 

 F. B. I. V. 662. 

 The Plains, 

 in tanks and 

 ditches. 



medium size, submerged, roots fibrous ; leaves crowded, 

 very variable, the submerged narrow, the floating long- 

 stalked orbicular or oblong, heart-shaped, 2-6 by 1-2 in. 

 or even 7 in. diam., 7-11-nerved, stalk 1-10 in. ; flowers 

 white, sohtary sessile on a tubular 2-fid sheath, sheath 1-1| 

 in., 5- or-6-winged, wings waved unequal, sepals 3, linear 

 or oblong, petals 1 in. broad, stamens 6-15, styles 6, linear, 

 2-fid ; fruit 2 in. diam., oblong, 6-valved, enclosed in the 

 sheath, crowned by the withered flower, 6-grooved, linear- 

 obloug to round, seeds many, oblong. 



Petals none, 



small, floating, submerged, or growing on mud, stems 

 slender, brittle, much branched, rooting at the joints ; 

 leaves J in. long, ovate or very narrow, entire, lower op- 

 posite, upper crowded into httle rosettes ; flowers minute, 

 axillary, usually sohtary, each between two minute bracts 

 (sometimes wanting), calyx and corolla none, in male flowers 

 one stamen, filament long, in female flowers a 4-lobed ovary, 

 styles 2, long, thread-like ; fruit round, flattened, sessile, mar- 

 gins winged, short-pointed, dividing into 4 one-seeded nuts. 



Callitrlche verna, like the last species, but the leaves are often oblong, 



Hallorrhagidace^S), fruit not winged, blunt, 



F. B. I. ii. 434. 



Himalaya, 



5-8,000 ft. 



Kashmir, 7,000 ft. 



ChanglagalU (Douie). 



Callltrlobe stagnalls. 

 Water Starwort, 



HALLORRHAGIDACB^aJ. 



F. B. I. ii. 484. 

 Himalaya, 

 5-10,000 ft. 

 Kashmir, Sipi 

 below Mashobra, 



Vallisneria splralias, 



Sawala, syala, 

 Hydrocharidace^. 

 F. B. I. V. 660. 

 The Plains to 

 2,000 ft. 

 Baluchistan 

 (Stocks). 



medium size, tufted, stemless, submerged ; leaves 

 5-10 by I in. varying with the depth of water, Hnear, 

 translucent, green ; flowers male and female separate in 

 sheaths, male flowers many, minute on long stalks in a 

 3-lobed short-stalked sheath ^ in,, sepals 3, petals none, 

 stamens 1-3, the sheath breaks off and floats at the surface 

 when the anthers shed the pollen, female flower solitary 

 in a tubular 3-toothed sheath on a long thread-hke coiled 

 stalk, sepals 3, petals none, staminodes 3, 2-fid, stigmas 3, 

 broad, notched ; fruit linear enclosed in the sheath, seeds 

 many. For purposes of propagation, the flower is carried 

 to the surface by the un-coiling of the spiral stalk, after 

 fertilization it is again submerged by the stalk coiling up 

 again ; fruit linear, many-seeded. This plant is used 

 similarly to Hydrilla verticillata in sugar refining. 



