74 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



more nl)riiptly beaked, and with the ribs more slender and much more 

 numerous. 



Floating Water-Plantain. 



Froncli, Fluteau narjeant. German, Schmmwcnder Frosclilojfel. 



6'^A^f/5 F.— ACTINOCARPUS. R.Br. 



Flowers perfect. Perianth with the 3 outer leaves herbaceous, sub- 

 persistent, the three inner rather larger, petaloid, caducous. Stamens 

 6, hypogynous; filaments filiform; anthers introrse, affixed by the 

 back. Ovaries 6 or 8 in a whorl, united at the base, free at the 

 apex ; stigma simple. Fruit 6 or 8 indehiscent beaked carpels 

 united at the base, the apices spreading in the form of a star, each 

 containing 2 or more seeds or only 1 by abortion of the other ovules. 



Aquatic or marsh plants with oblong stalked leaves, floating when 

 the plant is immersed, or erect when it grows out of water. Flowers 

 Avhite, in a raceme on a scape with verticillate branches. * 



The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is from aicTt'c, a ray, and Kapiroq, 

 fruit. 



SPECIES I.-ACTINOCARPUS D AM ASONIUM. Hooh. 

 Plate MCCCCXLII 



Alisma Damasonium, Linn. Sin. Engl. Bot. cd. i. No. 1615 ; and Engl. El. Vol. II. 



p. 204. 

 Damasonium stellatum, Pers. Kunlh. Enum. PI. Vol. III. p. 155. Benth. Handbk. 



Brit. Bot. ed. ii. p. 44G. Ch-en. & Godr. PI. de Fr. Vol. III. p. 1C7. 



Leaves oblong or oval-oblong, cordate or sul^cordate. Raceme 

 with 1 to 4 whorls of flowers. Pedicels not thickened, longer than 

 the follicles. Follicles 2-sccdcd or 1-seeded by abortion, the beak 

 without prominent nerves. 



In pools, especially on gravelly soil. Pare. Reported from 

 Gulval Marsh, near Penzance, on the authority of the late Rev. 

 W. S. Bree; but, as no other botanist has found it there, it is 

 probably extinct in that locality. It used to grow about two miles 

 from Cln-istchui'ch, on the Lyndhurst Road, Hants ; but has not, so 

 far as I know, been gathered there recently. Near Tunbridge Wells, 

 Sussex. Not uncommon on the commons in Surrey, and in Eppmg 

 Forest, Essex, and the adjoining district as far east as Warley; Fram- 

 lingham, Suffolk ; Dropmore Common, Herts ; and Ellesmei'e, Salop ; 

 formerly on Hounslow Heath, Middlesex, and Wingfield Plain, near 

 Windsor, Berks. 



