32 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



large, yellow. Fruit small, olive, sub-globular, 4-lobed, ^ inch long, 

 at last splitting into 4 achenes. Plant bright-green, glabrous. 

 The vars. a and pass insensibly into each other. 



Whorled Water-Milfoil. 



French, Volant cCEau verticilli. German, QuerlU 'iithiges Tausendblale. 



SPECIES IL-MYRIOPHYLLUM SPICATUM. Linn. 

 Plate DXIV. 



Leaves verticillate, commonly 4 in each whorl, loosely pectinate, 

 with the segments capillary, usually not exceeding the internodes 

 between the rather distant whorls. Flowers verticillate, usually 

 4 in each whorl, each in the axil of an entire or (towards the base 

 of the spike) closely pectinate bract, which is about equal to the 

 length of the flower ; spike erect in bud, without a coma of empty 

 bracts at the apex. Petals caducous. Anthers narrowly-oblong. 

 Fruit sub-globose, a little longer than broad before the separation 

 of the carpels, which are not ridged on the back. 



In ponds and ditches. Common, and generally distributed, but 

 more rare in the North. 



Very like M. verticillatum, but smaller, with the leaves usually in 

 more distant whorls, their segments shorter, more olive ; the whorls 

 of flowers fewer and much more distant, with the bracts shorter, so 

 that the spike is more distinct from the leafy portion; the petals 

 larger, dull-red. The bracts, however, are often very similar to those 

 of M. verticillatum, var. pectinatum ; but the upper ones are in 

 all the specimens I have seen entire and shorter than the flowers, 

 which never seems to be the case in any of the forms of the pre- 

 ceding. The lower leaves soon decay, so that the base of the stems 

 becomes naked. 



Spiked Water-Milfoil. 



French, Volant a"Eau en £'pi. German, Ahreubluthiges TamenMale. 



SPECIES III— MYRIOPHYLLUM ALTERNIFLORUM. 



D.G. 

 Plate DXV. 

 Leaves verticillate, 4 or 3 in a whorl, very loosely pectinate, 

 with the segments short, capillary, usually not exceeding the inter- 

 nodes between the rather close whorls. Lower female flowers 

 whorled, usually three in each whorl, the lowest whorl having the 

 flowers in bracts similar to the leaves, the upper ones in the axils 



