Ord. ELATINACEtE. 



Herbae paludosae annuae, foliis oppositis seu verticillatis, 

 stipulis interpetiolaribus, floribus axillaribus : dicotyledoneae, 

 hypogyneas, regulares, symmetrica?, 2 - 5-meras ; nempe, se- 

 palis, petalis, staminibus, stylis loculisque ovarii 2, 3, 4, v. 

 5, aut staminibus numero duplis ; aestivatione imbricativa ; 

 ovulis anatropis ; placentis in columnam centralem conna- 

 tis; capsula septifrage vel septicide 2— 5-valvi polysperma ; 

 seminibus exalbuminosis ; cotyledonibus brevibus. 



ELATiNEi, Camb. in Mem. Mus. 18. p. 225, & in St. Hil. Fl. Bras. 2. p. 

 160. Arn. in Edinb. Jour. Nat. Sci. 1. p. 430. Fisch. & Meyer, 

 in Linnjea, 10. p. 6'J. Endl. Gen. p. 1036. Fenzl, in Regensb. 

 Denkschr. 3. p. 179. 



Elatinaces, Lindl. Introd. Nat. Syst. ed. 2. p. 88, & Veg. Kingd. p. 480. 



The Water-wort Family consists of about twenty known species of 

 annual herbs, usually of small size, growing in water or wet and muddy 

 places. Much the greater number are natives of the Old World, in the 

 northern hemisphere ; the Elatines chiefly in the temperate, and the Bergias 

 in the tropical regions. Of the three known American representatives, two 

 fall within the limits of the present work ; while the third is Brazilian. 

 They are bland plants, destitute of any marked sensible qualities, as far as 

 is known ; although the popular name of Water Pepper in Europe, and the 

 Tamul name meaning Water-fire, which, according to Dr. Wight, is applied 

 to an Indian species, would seem to indicate no small degree of acridity. 



Until their separation as a distinct family by Cambessedes, these plants 

 had been appended to Caryophyllacete, on account of a general resemblance 

 to duckweeds ; from which their exalbuminous and anatropous seeds (much 

 more than their capitate stigmas) abundantly distinguish them. Bartling 

 joined them to Lythraces, which some of them resemble in aspect, but from 

 which they differ widely in their stipulate leaves, discrete styles or stigmas, 

 and especially in the hypogynous insertion of the petals and stamens. Lind- 

 ley refers the family to his Rutal alliance, chiefly on considerations deriv- 

 ed from one or two plants which are doubtless with justice excluded from 

 the order. But the nearest affinity of Elatinacea? is evidently on one hand 

 with Hypericacese ; from which they are principally distinguished by their 

 15 



