78 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



rudimentary, 3-lobed. Female flowers solitary, longly pedicellate from 

 a 1-leaved sessile membranous spatlie: tube of the perianth herbaceous, 

 adherent to the ovary, and not extending above it; limb 6-partite, the 

 3 outer segments oval and subherbaceous, the 3 inner larger, sub- 

 orbicular, petaloid, and with a fleshy scale at the base: stamens 6, 

 abortive, reduced to subulate filaments placed in pairs opposite the 

 exterior leaves of the perianth : ovary adhering to the tube of the 

 jierianth, 6-celled; ovules numerous in each cell; style very short, 

 thick, single; stigmas 6, each of them bifid. Fruit an ovoid subherba- 

 ceous berry with 6 cells, and numerous seeds attached to the walls of 

 the dissepiments. 



An aquatic stolouiferous lierb, with floating stalked roundish- 

 reniform leaves, the petioles sheathing and auriculate at the base. 

 Flowers rising out of the water, large, with delicate white iimer 

 perianth segments. Fruit submerged. 



The name of this genus of plants comes from the two Greek words, vdwp, water, and 

 Xiipis, delight, the pride of the water. 



SPECIES I.-H YDKOCHARIS MORSUS-RAN^. Linn. 



Plate MCCCCXLIV. 



Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. VII. Tab. LXII. Fig. 112. 

 Baiot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2937. 



The only known species. 



In ditches and ponds. Not very common, but generally distributed 

 over England, except in the extreme north, and common in the fens 

 of the eastern counties. Rare and local in Ireland, and found cluefly 

 in the middle and north of the island. 



England, Ireland. Perennial. Late Summer. 



Root-fibres very long. Rootstock with more or less elongated 

 nnnier-like stolons, producing at their apex new plants, which are at 

 first developed as ovoid bulbs, the new plants thus formed again pro- 

 ducing runners, so that late in the year a chain of plants exists, as 

 in the strawberry. Leaves floating, all with stalks 1 to G inches long ; 

 lamina orbicular, -| to 2 inches in diameter, entire, the base dee{)ly 

 cordate, with incumbent lobes : when young tiie leaves are rolled up like 

 those of Potamogeton natans, l)ut soon become quite flat, subcoriaceous, 

 shining and green above, dim and often purple beneath. Stipules 

 scai'ious, transparent, their base adnate to the leaf-stalks. I\Iale flowers 

 1 to 1 1 inch across ; spalhe on a peduncle 1 to 2 inches long, membranous, 

 containing 1 to 3 flowers in an umbel; jiedieel of the male flowers 

 1.^ to H inch long: sejials oblong, sublierbaceous: petals orbicular, 



