496 PONTEDERIACE^E. (PICKEREL-WEED FAMILY.) 



A smooth herb, with fibrous roots, flat and branching stems, short sword-shaped 

 equitant leaves, and clustered greenish flowers. 



1. C. flabellata, Desv. Stems mostly creeping or floating; leaves linear- 

 sword-shaped ; those of the stem nearly opposite ; heads cymose, scattered, top- 

 shaped, several-flowered; sepals rigid, lanceolate-subulate, slender-pointed, the 

 exterior ones strongly keeled, and as long as the linear-oblong obtuse capsule, 

 much shorter than the flat interior ones ; filaments exserted. ( Juncus repens, 

 Michx.) Miry banks of streams and ponds, Florida to North Carolina. July. 

 Stems -3 long. 



ORDER 154. PONTEDERIACEJE. (PICKEREL-WEED 

 FAMILY.) , 



Perennial aquatic or marshy herbs, with perfect mostly irregular flowers 

 from a 1-leaved spathe. Perianth corolla-like, unequally 6-cleft or 6- 

 parted, imbricated in the bud, withering-persistent. Stamens 3-6, more 

 or less unequal, and unequally inserted on the throat of the perianth : 

 anthers 2-celled, erect, introrse. Ovary free. Style single: stigma 3-6- 

 lobed. Capsule 1 - 3-celled, 1 - many-seeded. Seeds anatropous. Embryo 

 slender in mealy albumen. 



1. PONTEDERIA, L. WAMPEE. PICKEREL-WEED. 



Perianth funnel-shaped, 2-lipped, with the upper lip 3-lobed, the lower 3-parted, 

 the curved tube fleshy and coiled in fruit. Stamens 6, unequally inserted ; the 

 three lower ones exserted, the three upper short and often imperfect : anthers 

 oval, blue. Ovary 3-celled, two of the cells empty, the other with a single sus- 

 pended ovule. Style slender. Capsule (utricle) 1-seeded. Rhizoma thick and 

 creeping. Stem erect, bearing above the middle a single short-petioled leaf, and 

 at the summit a hairy spike of blue flowers, from a 1-leaved spathe. Radical 

 leaves long-petioled, sheathing. 



1. P. eordata, L. Stem and terete petioles erect (2 -3 high); leaves 

 (3'-8 f long) varying from round-cordate to lance-oblong, obtuse, finely nerved; 

 spike dense, cylindrical (2' -4' long), the peduncle enclosed in the convolute 

 spathe ; upper lobe of the hairy perianth spotted with yellow, the tube 6-ribbed. 

 (P. lancifolia, MuhL, and P. angustifolia, Pursh, are narrow-leaved forms.) 

 Miry margins of ponds and rivers, Florida, and northward. July - Sept. 



2. SCHOLLERA, Schreb. 



Perianth salver-form, nearly equally 6-lobed, the tube elongated and filiform. 

 Stamens 3, nearly equal : filaments subulate : anthers sagittate-oblong, yellow. 

 Style long and slender. Capsule oblong, 1 -celled, loculicidally 3-valved, with 

 three parietal placentce many-seeded. A small aquatic herb, with slender 

 branching stems, linear sessile leaves, and a small terminal yellow flower. 



