nal i 
1144 CALLITRICHE. | CLASS XXI, ORDER 1 
GENUS IJ. CALLI’TRICHE.—Liny. Water Starwort. 
Nat. Ord. Hatorac’Ex. Brown. 
Gren. Cuar. Flowers generally monecious. Perianth of two peta- 
loid pieces, barren flowers a single stamen, with a filiform fila- 
ment. Anther one celled, two valved. Fertile flower with its 
ovary four angled, four celled. Styles two. Capsules four 
celled, four seeded, indehiscent. Seed peltate. Radicle very 
long, curved, superior. Cotyledons very short—Name xaos, 
beautiful; and %es£, hair ; in allusion to the long slender hair- 
like stems. 
1. C. ver'na, Linn. (Fig. 1374) Vernal Water Starwort. Leaves 
of the lower branches linear, the upper ones obovate, three ribbed; 
fructiferous peduncles very short, with two falcate bractea at the 
base ; styles long, erect ; fruit tetragonal, the angles keeled. 
English Flora, vol. iv. p. 10-—Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i- 
p. 328.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 243.—C. aquatica.—English Botany, 
t. 722. 
Root long slender branches from the lower joints. Stems filiform, 
branched, with distant pairs of leaves below, crowded into a star-like 
form, and floating on the surface of the water at the top of the 
branches. eaves thin, pellucid, the lower ones linear, of greater or 
less length, often spatulate, single ribbed, opposite and distant, the 
upper ones spatulate, crowded into a star-like form, obovate or spatu- 
late, three ribbed. Stamen with a long slender /filament, its anthers 
of two roundish ovate separate cells. Capsule sub-globose, four 
celled, four lobed, elevated on a short peduncle, nearly sessile, 
each lobe obtusely keeled, and containing a thin peltate seed. 
Bractea at the base of the capsules, two membranous, faleate, con- 
spicuous. 
Habitat.-- Ditches, poois, and slow streams; very common. 
Annual; flowering in April and May. 
The leaves are very variable in size and length, according to the 
depth of the water and the rapidity of the stream. 
2. C. platy'carpa, Kitz. (Fig. 1375.) Broad-fruited Water Star- 
wort. leaves of the lower branches linear, the upper ones obovate, 
three ribbed; fructiferous pedicals very short, with two faleate 
bractea at the base; styles long, erect in the flower, reflexed closely 
over the fruit; fruit nearly sessile, the lobes in parallel pairs, the 
angles keeled. 
English Botany, Supp. t. 2864.—Babington, British Botany, p. 
108. 
This species is similar to C. verna, from which it is distinguished 
by the fruit being larger, paler, and its lobes being in parallel pairs, 
