XVIII. ELATINE^. 99 



several in each cell, attached to the inner angle, anatropous. Capsule opening 

 septicidally, the valves flat or concave, with the margins inflexed, leaving more 

 or less of the dissepiments attached to the central column. Seeds straight or 

 curved, testa crustaoeous, usually wrinkled or ribbed, albumen none or very thin. 

 Embryo filling the seed, cotyledons short, radicle next to the hilum. — Herbs or 

 low undershrubs, aquatic, creeping or diffuse. Leaves opposite or rarely verticil- 

 late, entire or seriate. Stipules in pairs. Flowers small, axillary, solitary or in 

 clusters or cymes. 



A small Order, dispersed over nearly the whole globe, allied to Hypericinea &nd CaryophyUece, 

 but differing from the former in habit, in the stipules, and in the perfectly isomerous flowers, 

 from the latter chiefly in the ovary and fruit and want of albumen to the seeds; there is also 

 considerable affinity, especially in habit, with Lythrarieie and Crassulaceee. The only two genera 

 of the Order, both of them of wide geographical range, are represented in Australia. — Benth. 



Sepals membranous, obtuse. Capsule membranous. Glabrous, aquatic or creep- 

 ing herbs. Flowers 2 to 4-merous 1. Elatine. 



Sepals herbaceous in the middle or keeled, acute. Capsule almost crustaceous. 

 Herbs or undershrubs. Flowers usually 5-merons, rarely 3 to 4-merous 2. Bekqia. 



1. ELATINE, Linn. 



(Leaves resembling the fir-tree.) 



Flowers 3 or 4-merous, rarely 2-merous. Sepals membranous, obtuse, not 

 keeled. Ovary globular. Capsule membranous, the dissepiments either disap- 

 pearing or remaining attached to the central column. — Small glabrous herbs, 

 either aquatic or creeping on mud. Leaves opposite or verticillate. Flowers 

 usually solitary in the axils, and very small. 



The genus is widely dispersed over the temperate and subtropical regions of the globe. The 

 Australian species is considered by some as endemic, by others as identical with an American 

 one. — Benth. 



1. E. americana (American), Am. in. Edinb. Journ. Nat. So. i. 431, var. 

 australiensis ; Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 178. A small, tender, glabrous annual, prostrate 

 and creeping over mud in dense tufts, sometimes not lin. in diameter, sometimes 

 extending over a considerable surface. Leaves in the ordinary form ovate, 

 obovate, or broadly oblong, 2 to 3 lines long, thin and of a bright green ; but in 

 some luxuriant specimens ovate-lanceolate or oblong, and exceeding |^in., almost 

 always bordered by a few distant glands. Stipules very minute and deciduous, or 

 rarely more persistent, and f line long. Flowers very minute, sessile and solitary 

 in one axil only of each pair of leaves, and in Australia almost always 3-merous. 

 Sepals usually very minute and transparent, and the petals so very small and 

 fugacious as to be rarely found in dried specimens, except in some western ones, 

 where the petals are reddish and fully i line long. Stamens 3. Ovary depressed- 

 globular, with 3 cells and 3 minute, punctiform, almost sessile stigmas. Capsule 

 often 1 line in diameter, the dissepiments sometimes complete, sometimes 

 obliterated at maturity. Seeds cylindrical, more or less curved or nearly straight, 

 marked with longitudinal furrows and minute, transverse wrinkles. — Hook. f. Fl. 

 Tasm. i. 47 ; E. minima, Fisch. and Mey. in Linnsa, x. 73 ; F. v. M. PI. Vict. i. 

 195 ; E. gratioloides, A. Cunn. in Ann. Nat. Hist. iii. 26. 

 Hab.: Brisbane River and south Queensland generally. 



2. BERGIA, Linn. 



(After Dr. P. J. Bergius.) 



Flowers 5-merous, or rarely 8 — 4-m6rous. Sepals herbaceous or keeled in the 



centre, acute, usually membranous and transparent on the edges. Ovary ovoid 



or globular. Capsule somewhat crustaceous, the valves sometimes induplicate on 



the edges and carrying off nearly the whole of the dissepiments, sometimes nearly 



