582 ELATINE. [CIASS VIII. ORDER 11. 



De Cand. Ic. pi. rar. 1. p. 14, t. 43. f. 1.— Prod. Sys. Nat. par. 1. p. 

 390. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 187.— £". Ih/dropiper. — English 

 Botany, t. 955, var. ^, Linn. — E. tripetala, Sm. — English Flora, vol. 

 ii. p. 243.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 48. Suppl. 321. 



Root white branched fibres from the axis of the branches and leaves. 

 Stem round, slender, thread-like, creeping, repeatedly branched and 

 spreading, of a pale delicate green, having eight radiating longitudinal 

 cavities round a central nerve. Leaves small, smooth, spathulate, 

 tapering at the base into a footstalk, having a mid-rib, and sometimes 

 lateral branches, the margin entire, or slightly waved, in opposite pairs, 

 sometimes four together, without stipules. Flowers solitary from the 

 axis of the leaves, elevated on a pedicle of variable length, sometimes 

 very short, appearing to be sessile, but mostly it is about the length of 

 the leaves, erect, smooth, simple. Calyx of three somewhat fleshy 

 ovate concave pieces, green. Corolla of three pale rose coloured petals, 

 roundish, with an acute point, concave, shorter than the calyx. Sta- 

 mens six, shorter than the petals, opposite, and alternating with them. 

 Filaments awl-shaped, the anthers ovate, yellow, of two cells, bending 

 over the germen upon the four-cleft stigmas. Capsule shorter than the 

 persistent calyx, turbinate, depressed at the summit, three celled, three 

 valved, roundish, becoming obscurely angular. »S'eef/5 about twelve in 

 each cell, ascending, nearly straight, the lower part only slightly bent, 

 from being attached to the placenta by its base, seeds a pale brown 

 colour, beautifully marked with longitudinal ribs and transverse stria. 



Habitat. — Margins of pools and ditches, especially in a sandy soil ; 

 rare. Bomere pool, near Condover, Shropshire. — Rev. E. Williams, 

 Near Binfield, Berks.— Mr. T. F. Forster. By the mill dam at 

 Filgate, near Crawley, Sussex. — Mr. Borrer. Loch Montheath, 

 Perthshire, Scotland. 



Annual ; flowering in July and August. 



2. E. Hydro'piper, Linn. (Fig. 663.) Four-petaled Water-ivort. 

 Leaves opposite, spathulate ; flowers alternate, pedicellated and sessile, 

 erect, octandrous, tetrapatalous; capsule roundish, convex at the summit, 

 four celled; seeds about /our in each cell, much curved, and pen- 

 dulous. 



De Cand. Ic. pi. rar. 1. p. 13 t. 43. f. 2.— Prod. Sys. Nat. pars. 1. 

 p. 390.— English Botany, Suppl. t. 2670.— Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. 

 p. 188. — Lindley, Synopsis, Suppl. p. 321. 



Moot white branched fibres from the axis of the branches and leaves. 

 Stem round, slender, thread-like, creeping, repeatedly branched and 

 spreading, quite smooth, of a pale delicate green, having eight radiating 

 longitudinal cavities, round a central nerve. Leaves small, smooth, 

 spathulate, tapering at the base into raiher a broad footstalk, having a 

 mid-rib and sometimes lateral veins, the margins entire, in opposite 

 pairs, sometimes four together, having at the base on each side an ovate 

 pale membranous stipule, deeply and irregularly toothed, Floivers 



