CABOMBACEjE 95 



Plate 39. 

 BRASENIA, Schreb. 



Sepala 3. Petala 3, sessilia, linearia, sepalis consimilia. 

 Stamina 12-lS^vel 18-36?), antheris levissime introrsis. 

 Ovaria 6- 18 : stigma unilaterale sessile. — Folia omnia na- 

 tantia, integerrima, centra peltata. 



Brasenia, Schreber, Gen. 938 (1789). Nutt. Gen. 2. p. 23. Torr. & 

 Gray, 1. c. p. 55. Endl. Gen. 5025. Gray, Bot. N. U. S. p. 22. 



Hydropeltis, Michx. Fl. 1. p. 324. t. 29 (1803). Rich. 1. c. Salisb. in 

 Ann. Bot. 2. p. 74. DC. Syst. 2. p. 37. 



Water-shield. 



Sepals 3, or sometimes 4, narrowly oblong, imbricated in 

 aestivation, herbaceous, colored inside, persistent. Petals 

 as many as the sepals and alternate with them, hypogynous, 

 linear-oblong, sessile, not appendiculate, persistent. Stamens 

 12 to IS, or sometimes more numerous, hypogynous : fila- 

 ments filiform : anthers linear-oblong, innate, the cells 

 opening longitudinally by a slightly introrse line. Pistils 

 4 to IS, capitate-crowded, sessile : ovary oblong, one-celled, 

 terminated by an oblong and brush-shaped introrse stigma of 

 almost its own length. Ovules 2, superposed on the dorsal 

 suture, pendulous, anatropous ; the raphe towards the suture. 



Fruit (few or several of the carpels maturing) indehis- 

 cent, coriaceous, pointed with the persistent stigma, oblong 

 or obovoid, usually only one (the upper) seed ripening. 

 Seed ovoid, large ; the crustaceous testa nearly smooth. 

 Albumen farinaceous, marked by a central canal, as in Ca- 

 bomba. Embryo depressed-globular, filling the membrana- 

 ceous sac which occupies and is partly imbedded in the hilar 

 extremity of the albumen: radicle a mere papilla at the 

 junction of the two very thick and lleshy cotyledons, which 

 lie parallel with the raphe (or anterior and posterior), and in- 

 close an oblong two-lobed plumule. 



