ALlSMACEiE. 65 



GENUS /.— T RIGLOOHIN. Linn. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth of 6 deciduous concave subherbaceous 

 similar segments. Stamens 6, inserted near the base of the perianth 

 segments; filaments very short. Ovary 6-celled, the alternate cells 

 sometimes sterile ; ovules solitary in each cell; stigmas 3 or 6, sessile 

 or subsessile, plumose. Fruit of 3 or 6 1-seeded cocca, separating from 

 the columella at the base, and at length opening by the ventral suture. 



Herbs with grasslike, flat, or semicylindrical leaves, and naked 

 scapes, bearing racemes of minute greenish flowers. 



The name of tins genus of plants is derived from tlie Greek words rpeTc, ttree, and 

 y\iii-)(yy, the head of an arrow, alluding to the pointed valves of the capsule. 



SPECIES I.— TRIGLOCHIN PALUSTRE. Linn. 



Plate MCCCCXXXIII. 



Hekh. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VH. Tab. LI. Figs. 90 and 91. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1547. 



Rootstock not bulbous, producing elongated runners, from which 

 new plants are produced at a distance from the parent. Leaves in 

 solitary tufts, very narrowly linear, semicylindrical, faintly channeled 

 above. Scape curved only at the very base, then straight and erect, 

 longer than the leaves. Fruit clavate-cylindrical, splittmg into 3 cocca, 

 which are attenuated into slender pointed bases. 



In wet meadows and heaths, and by the sides of ditches. Common, 

 and generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 



Rootstock slender, emitting a number of root-fibres, and sending 

 out slender stolons, which at length become thickened at the apex, 

 and produce new plants almost always at some distance from the 

 parent. Base of the scape invested with the fibrous remains of 

 the leaves of former years. Leaves very variable in length, some- 

 times little more than an inch, at other times above a foot; in all 

 cases with their bases dilated and sheathing the scape, the sheaths 

 with scarious margins, the leaf itself rush-like, but weak and not 

 rigid. Scape usually solitary from each leaf-tuft, at length 3 inches 

 to 2 feet high, rather more than half of it occupied by the raceme 

 when in fruit. Raceme dense wliile in flower, lengthening between 

 each pedicel as the flowers wither, and becoming lax in fruit. Pedicels 

 shorter than the perianth when in flower, lengthening afterwards, and 

 commonly a little shorter than the ripe fruit. Perianth segments 

 greenish-yellow with purplish edges, oval, the 3 outer ones spreading, 



VOL. IX. K 



