ONAGRARIACEzE. 



481 



are aquatic herbs, with alternate, opposite, or verticillate leaves, 

 linear or oval, entire, dentate or pinnatifid and pectinate when sub- 

 merged. In Myriophyllon verticiUatnrrij the flowers occupy the axil 

 of these pectinate leaves, larger than themselves, whilst, in M. sjpi- 

 cat urn, for example, short bracts replace these leaves, and the whole 

 emerged inflorescence constitutes a terminal spike. The flowers in 

 the axil of each leaf or bract, are solitary or united in small glome- 

 rules. This genus belongs to the warm and cold regions of all parts 

 of the world. 



Serpicida ^ (fig. 466, 467) has also nearly the flowers of the pre- 

 ceding genera, small, monoecious, and disposed in cymes or in 

 axillary glomerules ; the 



number varies at the level Serpkuia repem. 



of each leaf. One of the 

 flowers of the cyme is male 

 with a long pedicel; the 

 others are sessile or nearly 

 so and female. The male 

 flowers have four sepals, 

 four concave petals, and 

 four alternate, oppositipe- 

 talous ^ stamens, or from six 

 to eight stamens. The gy- 

 naecium is there rudimen- 

 tary and sterile. In the female flowers, the inferior ovary is sur- 

 mounted by four sepals and four petals. The stamens are rudimentary 

 or without anthers, or even disappear entirely, and the ovarian cells, 

 separated by incomplete partitions, contain each one ovule of 

 Haloragis. Serpicula, of which three or four species,^ from the 

 marshes of Asia, Africa, and tropical America, are distinguished, 

 consists of herbs with opposite or alternate leaves, narrow, entire or 

 dentate. 



Fig. 466. Flower (f). 



Fig. 467. Long. 

 sect, of flower. 



Gr.) ; 2. Sphovdylnstrum (Torr. et Gr.) ; 3. 

 Ptilophyllmn (Nutt.). 



1 L. Mantiss. 16.— J. Gen. 318.— Lamk. Ill.t. 

 758. -PoiR. Diet. vii. 122 ; Suppl. v. 136.— DC. 

 Prodr. iii. 65.— Exdl. Gen. n. 6136.— B. H. Gen. 

 675, n. 4.— H. Bx. Payer Fam. Nat. Zll .—Lau- 

 renbergia Berg. Fl. Cap. 350 (not II. Bn.). — 

 Epilithes Bl. Bijdr. 734 ; Miis. Lugd.-Bat. i. 1 10. 



2 In this case they are often lodged in the 

 VOL. VI. 



cavity of the petals to which they appear super- 

 posed ; but that is only a consequential appear- 

 ance ; they are really alternipetalous. 



3 A. S.-H. Fl. Bras. Mer. ii. 250.— Wight, 

 Icon. t. 1001.— Thw. Fnum. Pl.Zeyl. 123.— Mm. 

 Fl. Ind.-Bat. i. p. i. 632.— Harv. and Sond. Fl. 

 Cap. ii. 572.— TuL. Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 4, vi. 125. 

 — Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. ii. 405.— Walp, Hep. ii. 

 98; Ann. ii. 537; vii. 941. 



31 



