VMBELLIFEBM. 



139 



latter, rather shorter, surmounted by a thick conical stylopod. The 

 petals are entire, and the habit is altogether peculiar, resembling 

 that of many plants of the following series. It is a glabrous herb, 

 with simple stem, simple leaves (reduced ? to their petiole), entire, 

 cylindro-conical, fistular and divided by transverse partitions. The 

 base is dilated to a sheath. The inflorescence is a compound umbel, 

 supported by a long axis, and wdthout involucre and involucels. 



V. PENNYWOET (HYDEOCOTYLE) SEEIES. 



The Pennyworts^ (fig. 157-161) have hermaphrodite or poly- 

 gamous flowers. The receptacle is in the form of an oval or orbi- 

 cular sac much compressed at the sides. The margin of the orifice 

 is cut straight, and bears no 



trace of sepals, or rather these Sydrocotyu vulgaris, 



are represented by five small 

 teeth, ordinarily very indis- 

 tinct. The five petals are 

 inserted on the receptacular 

 margin ; they are sessile, en- 

 tire, pointed or slightly ob- 

 tuse, valvate in prefloration, 

 or more rarely somewhat im- 

 bricate. Five equally epigy- 

 nous stamens alternate with 

 them, formed each of an in- 

 curved filament and a bilocular, 

 sometimes didymous anther, 

 shghtly introrse or dehiscing 

 by two nearly marginal clefts. 

 A disk 2 in the form of a very depressed cone crowns the ovary, which 

 has two cells, one anterior, the other posterior, and is surmounted by 



Fig. 157. Habit. 



1 Hydrocotyle T. Inst. 328, t. 173.— L. Gen. n. 

 325. — Adans. Fam. des PI. ii. 100. — Thunb. 

 Diss. ii. 410.— J. Gen. 226.— Lamk. Diet. iii. 

 151; Suppl. iii. 72; III. t. 188.— A. Rich. 

 Monogr. Eydroc. Ann. So. Phys. Par. (1820) iv. 

 164 (part).— Lag. Am. Nat. ii. 102.— Koch, 

 Umb. 144.— DC. Mem. 26; Prodr. iv. 59.— 

 Spach, Suit, a Buffon, viii. 173.— Endl. Gen. n. 



4355.— H. Bn. Payer Fam. Nat. 336.— B. H. 

 Gen. 872, n. 1.— Hook. Fl. Ind. ii. 667.— Baker, 

 Fl. Maurit. 131.— Centella L. Gen. n. 1051.— 

 Solandra L. f. Suppl. 176. — Trisanthus Lour. 

 Fl. Cochiiich. (ed. 1790) 175. — Glyceria Nutt. 

 Gen. Nov. Amer. i. 177. — Chondrocarpus Nutt. 

 he. cit. 



' Perhaps it corresponds to the stylopods. 



