498 THE ALISMA TAMILT. 



a foot kigh. Leaves few, linear, sheathing at the hase, then narrowed, and 

 nearly cylindrical ; the lower ones often longer than tlie stem ; the upper 

 ones passing into short, sheathing floral bracts. Flowers few, rather small, 

 on pedicels about 6 lines long, forming a short, loose terminal raceme. 

 Perianth shghtly coloured, of 6 spreading or reiiexed segments. Stamens 

 6. Carpels 3, rarely 4 to 6, near 3 lines diameter when ripe, opening by a 

 longitudinal slit, and containing 1 or 2 seeds. 



In bogs and peaty marshes, in northern and Arctic Europe, Russian 

 Asia, and North America, and here and there in the mountainous districts 

 of central Europe. In Britain, only in a few bogs in northern England, 

 at Bomere, in Shropshire, and at Methuen, near Perth. Ft. summer, rather 

 early. 



VI. TRIGI.OCHIN. TRIGLOCHIN. 



Tufted herbs, with linear, semi-cylindrical radical leaves, and leafless 

 flower-stems, bearing a slender raceme or spike of small greenish flowers 

 without bracts. Perianth of 6 nearly equal segments. Stamens 6. Ovary 

 and fruit of 3 or 6 one-seeded carpels, each bearing a separate, small, feathery 

 stigma, all united at first round a central axis, but separating from it when 

 ripe. 



A small genus, chiefly maritime, but widely distributed over the globe. 



Eipe fruit linear, with 3 carpels 1. Marsh T. 



Kipe fruit OToid or oblong, with 6 carpels 2. Sea T. 



1. Marsh Triglochin. Triglochin palustre, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 366. Arrow-grass^ 



The tufted stock emits a few slender, creeping runners. Leaves slender, 

 but rather succulent, varying from 2 or 3 to 6 or 8 mches in length, dilated 

 and sheathing at the base. Flower-stems from 6 inches to a foot high, 

 bearing in their upper half a slender spike of small, yellowisli-green flowers, 

 which are at first sessile, but as the fruiting advances the pedicels lengthen 

 to 1 or 2 lines. Perianth-segments broadly ovate, the feathery stigmas just 

 appearing above them. After they fall off, the fruit lengthens to about 3 

 lines by less than a line broad, tapering at the base ; when ripe it separates 

 from the base upwards into 3 carpels, leaving a central axis. 



In wet meadows, and marshes, and on the shaUow edges of streams, more 

 especially in maritime districts, in Europe, central and Russian Asia, and 

 North America, extending from the Mediterranean to the Arctic regions. 

 Common in Britain. Fl. atl summer. 



2. Sea Triglochin. Triglochin maritimum, Linn. 



(Eng. Bot. t. 255.) 



Very near the marsh T., but usually rather stouter, with more succulent 

 leaves, the flowers nearly similar ; but even in that state the ovary is 

 broader, with 6 cells, and the ripe fruit is not more than 2 lines long, more 

 than a line broad, and divides into 6 carpels. 



In Europe, generally more restricted to the vicinity of the sea than the 

 marsh T., but equally abundant with that species in the salt-marshes of the 

 northern hemisphere, and in central Asia it ascends also high up in moun- 

 tain-ranges. Common in Britain. Fl.fromsj^ring till late in autumn. 



