80 ALISMACEAE (WATER-PLA^'TAIN FAMILY^ 



1. Scheuchzeria. Ovaries 3, nearly distinct, at length divergent. Flowers bracteate, in a loose 



raceme upon a leafy stem. 



2. Triglochin. Ovaries 3-6, united until maturity. Leaves radical. Flowers bractless, in a 



spike-like raceme terminating a jointless scape. 



1. SCHEUCHZERIA L. 



3epals and petals oblong, spreading, nearly alike (greenish yellow), but the 

 latter narrower, persistent. Stamens 6 ; anthers linear. Ovaries 3, globular, 

 slightly united at base, 2-3-ovuled, bearing flat sessile stigmas, in fruit forming 

 3 diverging and inflated 1-2-seeded pods, opening along the inside. — A low bog- 

 herb, with a creeping jointed rootstock, tapering into the ascending simple stem, 

 which is zigzag, partly sheathed by the bases of the grass-like conduplicate 

 leaves, and termimated by a loose raceme of a few flowers, with sheathing 

 bracts ; leaves tubular at the apex. (Named for Johann and Johann Jacob 

 Scheuchzer, distinguished Swiss botanists early in the 18th century.) 



1. S. paliistris L. — Peat-bogs, and wet shores, e. Que. to N. J., westw. 

 across the continent. June. (Eurasia.) 



2. TRIGL6CHIN L, Arrow Grass 



Sepals and petals nearly alike (greenish), ovate, concave, deciduous. Sta- 

 mens 3-6 ; anthers oval, on very short filaments. Pistils united into a 3-6- 

 celled compound ovary ; stigmas sessile ; ovules solitary. Capsule splitting 

 when ripe into 3-6 carpels, which separate from a persistent central axis. — 

 Perennials, with rush-like fleshy leaves below sheathing the base of the wand- 

 like naked and jointless scape. Flowers small, in a spiked raceme, bractless. 

 (Name composed of r/je??, three^ and yXuxiv, point, from the three points of the 

 ripe fruit in no. 3 when dehiscent.) 



Fruit thicker than long 1. T. sttnata. 



Fruit longer than thick. 



Fruit (with 3-6 carpels) ovoid-prismatic, about twice as long as thick . . 2. T. maritima. 



Fruit (3-carpelled) clavate- or linear-prismatic, 3-5 times as long as thick . . 3. 7'. paluatris. 



1. T. striata R. & P. Scape (8-34 cm. high) and leaves slender ; flowers 

 very small ; sepals and stamens 3 ; fruit globose-triangular, or when dry 

 3-lobed. (T. triandra Michx.) — Salt marshes, near seashore, Md. to Fla. and 

 La. (S. A.) 



2. T. maritima L. Scape (1.5-7.5 dm. high) and leaves thickish; fruit 

 ovoid or short-prismatic, acutish ; carpels 3- (more often) 6, rounded at base 

 and slightly grooved on the back, the edges acutish. — Salt marshes near the 

 coast, Lab. to N. J., and in saline, boggy, or wet places across the continent. 

 (Eurasia., n. Afr.) 



3. T. paliistris L. Scape (5-50 cm. high) and leaves slender ; stamens 6 ; 

 fruit linear-club-shaped; carpels when ripe separating from below upward, 

 leaving a triangular axis, awl-pointed at base. — Marshes (usually brackish) 

 and bogs, Greenl, to the coast of s. Me. ; also inland along the St. John and 

 St. Lawrence R., Great Lakes and north westw. (Eurasia.) 



ALISMAcEAE (Water-plantain Family) 



Marsh herbs, loith scape-like stems, sheathing leaves, and perfect, monoecious^ 

 or dioecious flowers ; perianth of S herbaceous persistent sepals and as many 

 (often conspicuous) white deciduous petals, ichirh are imbricate or involute in 

 bud; stamens or more, included; ovaries numerous, distinct, \-celled and 

 mostly ]-ovuled. becoming achenes in fruit (in our genera) ; seeds erect, cam- 

 pylotropous. — Roots fibrous ; leaves radical, petiolate and strongly nerved with 

 v^-ansverse veinlets, the earlier sometimes without blade ; flowers long-pedicellate, 



