22 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



In ponds and ditches. Very common, and generally distributed,- 

 extending to Orkney, but apparently not to Shetland. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Early Summer. 



Fronds J- to \ inch long, usually rather broader towards the apex, 

 and generally apiculate at the base, bright green above, paler beneath, 

 giving off at the base at an angle young fronds, which are generally un- 

 equal in size, and sometimes only on one side ; epidermal cells bounded 

 by strongly sinuous hues. The fronds pei'ish in autumn, and the buds 

 remain at the bottom of the water until sprmg, when they rise to the 

 surface, and rapidly increase m size. The plant, therefore, should no 

 more be called an annual than a tulip or crocus, of which the bulb or 

 corm is annually reproduced. The ilowers are extremely minute and 

 produced from a small lateral cleft towards the base of the frond, from 

 which 2 anthers (male flowers), one developed before the other, and 

 a single female flower, reduced to a flaskshaped ovary, with a con- 

 spicuous style. The fruit I have not seen. 



Lesser Duckweed. 



Fi'encli, Lenticiile naine. German, Kleinste Wasserlinse. 



Accoi'ding to Fraas's " Synopsis Plantamm Flora; Classicse," this species is tlio 

 "iKjiri of Tlicoplirastus (iv. 11), and tlie pdt:os of Dioscorides (iv. 88). 



Section III.— TELMATOPHACE. ScJdeid. 



Fronds floating, herbaceous, apiculate, not taUed, each giving rise 

 to a single root-fibre, and furnished with naked baso-lateral clefts, from 

 which young fronds are produced, which remain sessile and attached 

 only for a short time to the parent frond ; cells of the epidermis 

 bounded by sinuous lines. Flowers from a cleft in the margin of the 

 frond. Ovary containing 2 to 7 anatropous ovules. Fruit 2- to 7- 

 seeded, bursting transversely. 



SPECIES III.— L EMNA GIBBA. Lhm. 

 Plate MCCCXCVI. 



Belch. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Hclv. Vol. VII. Tab. XIV. Fig. 16. 



Billot, Fl. GaU. et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2940. 



Telmatopbace gibba, Schleid. Kuntli. Enum. PI. Vol. III. p. 6. 



Fronds floating, opaque, thick, flat above, at length very convex 

 beneath, oval-obovate or suborbicular, entire, not tailed, subapiculate, 

 the young fronds sessile, each frond giving rise to a single root-fibre, 

 the under surface at length spongy and greatly swollen. 



In ditches and ponds. Rather local, but generally distributed in 



