PETALOIDE^ 



295 



or whorled leaves, and usually dioecious flowers with 

 inferior ovary. The family is especially noticeable 

 for pata-shaola {Vanisnen'a spiralis) (see fig. 108), 

 a stoloniferous weed, rooted in the mud of our tanks 

 and ditches, with long, linear, radical leaves which are 

 commonly used for refining gurh or crude sugar into 

 white sugar. The submerged female flowers are sup- 

 ported on spirally-twisted stalks and the male flowers- 

 on short stalks among the 

 leaves. At the time of pol- 

 lination the submerged male 

 flowers, breaking away from 

 the short stalks, come to the 

 surface of the water and float 

 about. The female submerged 

 flowers, unrolling their twisted 

 stalk, also come to the surface 

 at the same time and get pol- 

 linated by the freely-floating 

 male flowers. When the pol- 

 lination is over, the long stalk 

 of the female flowers, twisting 

 spirally again, pulls the flowers 



down under the water, where the fruits de\elop. The 

 leaves of this plant are well adapted to show rotation 

 of protoplasm. Hydrilla verticillafa, a kind of jhangi, 

 is a very common weed of our tanks with branching, 

 floating stems and 3- to 4- nately- whorled leaves. 

 Roxburgh says of this plant: "When the male flowers 

 are ready to expand, the spathe bursts, the flowers 

 are then quickly detached and swim remote from the 

 parent plant on the surface of the water in search of 

 the female flowers, resting on the extremities of the 

 reflexed leaves of the perianth. What a wonderful 

 economy!" The female flowers, in fact, remain 



26^). — ffytftn •Jiaris Mor 

 A'ti'ur 



