XVII. BUTOME^. 797 



XVI. TRIURIDEJS* 



(TEIUEIACE.E, Miers. TEIUEACE^E, Gardn. TEIUEIDACE^E, Lindl. TEIUEIDE.E, 



Dene, and Le Maout.) 



[Very slender white or discoloured rarely green HEEBS ; roots fibrous. STEM 

 simple, rarely divided, filiform, straight or flexuous, erect. LEAVES 0, or bract-like, 

 alternate, nerveless. FLOWEES minute, racemose or spiked, monoacious or dioecious, 

 rarely unisexual ; pedicels bracteate. PEEIANTH 3-4-6 -8-partite, hyaline ; segments 

 connate at the base, valvate, tips often caudate. STAMENS few, various in number, 

 sessile in the base of the perianth, usually seated on an androphore; anthers 

 4-celled, 2-valved, lobes rarely separated. CAEPELS many, on a central receptacle, 

 1 -celled; style excentric, lateral or basal, smooth or feathery; stigma obsolete or 

 truncate or clavate ; ovule 1, basal, erect. Ripe CAEPELS obovoid, coriaceous and 

 indehiscent, or 2-valved, 1-seeded. SEED ovoid ; testa reticulate ; nucleus cellular. 



SECTION I. TRIUEIEJ;. Perianth-lobes with twisted tails that are inflexed in bud. Anther- 

 cells separate, each 2-locellate. Ovary gibbous ; style ventral. Triuris, Hexuris. 



SECTION II. SCIAPHILE^;. Perianth-lobes without tails. Anther-cells confluent. Stylo 

 almost basilar. Soridium, Sciaphila, Hyalisma. 



A very singular little order, well defined and illustrated by Miers in the Linmean Transactions, 

 from which work the ahove descriptions are taken. According to him they are allied to Alismaceee ; 

 in the neighbourhood of which the late H. Brown also informed me they must in his opinion be 

 placed. 



Triuridece are natives of tropical forests in America and Asia, growing on mossy banks and dead 

 leaves, with hardly any attachment to the ground. Hyalisma is a native of Ceylon (it is referred to 

 Sciaphila by Thwaites) j Sciaphila of both Asia and America ; all the other genera are American. 

 ED.] 



XVII. BUTOME^E. 



(BUTOMEJE, L.-G. Richard. BUTOMACEJE, EndL, Lindl.) 



FLO WEES 5. PEEIANTH 6-merous, 2-seriate (calyx and corolla). STAMENS hypo- 

 gynous, 9-oo . OVAEIES 6-00, whorlcd, more or less distinct, l-celled, many-ovuled ; 

 OVULES erect, anatropous or campy lotropous, placentation parietal. FEUIT follicular. 

 SEEDS numerous. EMBEYO straight or hooked, exalbuminous ; EADICLE inferior. 

 Marsh HEEBS, perennial, stemless. FLOWEES solitary or umbelled. 



Perennial marsh or aquatic HEEBS, stemless, glabrous, sometimes milky. 

 LEAVES all radical ; petiole semi-sheathing at the base ; blade linear or oval, large, 

 nerved, sometimes arrested. SCAPES simple, 1 -many-flowered. FLOWEES 5 > regular, 

 solitary (Hydrocleis), or umbelled (Butomus, Limnocharis) ; pedicels with membranous 



1 See tribe Triuridcee of Burmanniacece, p. 779. ED. 



