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A NEW BRITISH FLOWERING PLANT 



TILL/EA AQUATIC A L. 



R. W BUTCHER. 



While at Adel, near Leeds, on September ist, I found a 'small 

 plant growing on the margin of a pool, which proved to be 

 Tillcea aquatica L. (nat. order Crassitlaceae), a species new to 

 Great Britain. 



It is a small, bright green, succulent, glabrous plant, 

 from I to 3 inches high, somewhat of the habit of a Sagina.- 

 Stem erect or decumbent, rooting at the lower nodes, the 

 lower portion faintly red. Leaves glabrous, opposite, entire, 

 linear, \ in. long, connate at the base, sessile. Flowers,. 



TILLMA AQUATICA L. 



sessile, or with a very short pedicel, axillary, solitary, one 

 in each pair of leaves, yV i^- diam., 4-partite. Sepals small, 

 green, ovate, blunt, united at the base. Petals white or 

 pinkish, lanceolate. Stamens 4, opposite the petals, alter- 

 nating with 4 wedge-shaped staminodes ; the filaments very 

 slender, anthers spherical. Gynoecium apocarpous, of four 

 carpels, each 6-10 seeded, the upper portion only slightly 

 recurved when mature. 



The above plant differs from the description of the German 

 plant in the very feeble development of any red tint to the 

 stem, and in the less recurved upper portion of the fruit. 



A sub-species (T. Vaillantii) with flowering pedicels longer 

 than the leaves occurs in France and Italy. 



It was the dominant plant growing in abundance on the 



19-.;i Nov. 1 



2B 



