Alismacea. | FLORA OF TASMANIA. i 39 
times of scarcity by the natives of Australia, New Zealand, and Scinde in Western India. The leaves are used for 
thatching and other purposes. Rhizomes full of starch, often eatable. The species are not well characterized; the 
Tasmanian one seems to be the same as the English, though larger than the common European state of the same 
plant.—Rhizomes stout, creeping, densely matted together. Culms 2-4 feet nigh, cylindrical, solid. Leaves linear, 
spongy internally, sheathing at the base, quite entire. Catkins two, towards the apex of each culm, the upper of 
male flowers removed a little distance from the lower. Flowers minute, most densely matted together, so that the 
catkins look like velvet pile. Perianth of capillary setee; male of three to six stamens, with slender filaments ; 
female of a slender one-celled ovary, terminating in a taper persistent style. (Name, the old Greek one.) 
l. Typha angustifolia (Linn. Sp. Pl. 1377); foliis dorso convexis, amenta mascula a foeminen 
distincta.— Br. Prodr. 338; Fl. N. Zeal. i. 238. ? T. Shuttleworthii, Sonder et Koch in Koch Synops. Fl. 
Germ. ed. 2. ii. 785; Lehman in Plant. Preiss. à. 8. (Gunn, 412.) 
Has. Common in marshes, banks of rivers, etc.—(v. v.) 
DisrriB. Australia, New Zealand, and in many temperate and some tropical parts of the Old and 
New World. 
Nar. On». VIII. ALISMACEA. 
A large Order of water-plants, whose limits are much disputed; and it seems to be immaterial whether 
Alismacea, Juncaginee, and Naiadee are considered separate Orders, or sections of one. A far more per- 
fect transition of forms exists between the most perfect A4/ismacez and the most imperfect Vaiadez, than 
between Aroidee, Pistiacea, and Typhacea, which are somewhat similarly connected. All are water or 
marsh plants, with solitary or free, superior, one-celled, one-seeded, rarely two- or many-seeded, indehiscent 
carpels, bearing one or more erect or pendulous, exalbuminous seeds, with straight or curved embryos. 
The floral envelopes are in two series in Alisma, consisting of three green sepals, and as many white 
membranous petals; but the transition is perfectly gradual from this perfect double perianth to the naked 
stamens and ovary of Ruppia and others. The European genera Alisma and Actinocarpus are both Aus- 
tralian, but not hitherto found in Tasmania. 
Gen. I. TRIGLOCHIN, Z. 
Flores hermaphroditi. Perianthium 6-phyllum, foliolis imbricatis ovato-concavis, 3 interioribus inter- 
dum altius insertis, v. 0. Stamina 3-6 ; filamentis brevissimis, antheris extrorsis. Ovarium 3-6-loculare, 
loculis ovulo 1 (rarius 2?) erecto; stylis 3-6, stigmatibus sessilibus papillosis v. plumosis. Capsula e 
carpidiis 3-6 axi adnatis, alternis interdum sterilibus septiformibus. Semina solitaria, testa coriacea; em- 
bryone exalbuminoso orthotropo.—Herbe paludose, scapigere ; folis linearibus; scapis gracilibus; flori- 
bus viridibus, spicatis racemosisve, inconspicuis. 
Minute or tall slender marsh-herbs, with narrow, grass-like, or subulate leaves and scapes, bearing spikes or 
racemes of inconspicuous green flowers, natives of all temperate regions, more numerous and curious in Australia, 
where about ten species are known, than in any other country.—Perianth of four to six greenish, generally unequal 
(the outer and lower larger), fleshy, concave leaflets, in two series, the upper generally placed at a little distance 
above the others. Stamens three to six, with very short filaments, and broad, extrorse anthers, often as large as 
the sepals in which they lie. Ovaries three to six, turgid or linear, combined into a three- to six-celled ovary, with 
as many one- to two ?-ovuled cells, and sessile plumose stigmas. Fruit of three to six carpels, attached to a central 
axis, each ovate, eylindrical, or linear, sometimes keeled, grooved, or armed with a projecting spine below. Seed 
solitary, erect, exalbuminous, with a coriaceous testa and straight embryo. (Name from pets, three, and yAwxıs, 
a point; in allusion to the three carpels.) 
