104 ALISMAOE^. 



the ovary maturing into a more compressed fruit which is winged; 

 perfect flowers with the ovary behind (next to the axis of the spike) 

 and the stamens in front (next to the bract); staminate flowers 

 consisting of a single stamen in the axil of a bract. 



1. L. subulata HBK. Leaves 6 to 8 in. long, 1 to 2 lines wide; 

 spikes dense, J in. long or less; pistillate flowers in the axils of the 

 radical leaves often with a style 1 to 3 in. long, their fruits 2J to 3 

 lines long. 



Ponds and vernal pools almost throughout California: Sonoma; 

 Napa Valley; Solano Co.; San Francisco; Santa Clara Valley. Apr. 



10. ALISMACE>E. Water-Plantain Family. 



Marsh or aquatic herbs with radical leaves, scape-like flower stems 

 and perfect or unisexual flowers. Perianth of 3 outer herbaceous 

 persistent sepals, and 3 inner white deciduous petals. Stamens 6 or 

 more. Ovaries numerous, distinct, 1-celled, 1-ovuled, becoming 

 achenes in fruit. Endosperm none; embryo strongly recurved or 

 folded. 



Flowers perfect; stamens 6; achenes in a single whorl 1. Alisma. 



Flowers unisexual; stamens numerous; achenes in a dense liead . 2. Sagittaeia. 



1. ALISMA L. 



Erect herbs, growing in shallow water or mud, with radical 

 long-petioled leaves. Inflorescence a panicle consisting of whorled 

 branches each bearing a simple or compound umbel of perfect flowers. 

 Perianth of 3 outer small herbaceous segments, and 3 much larger 

 inner ones, these petal-like and very delicate. Stamens 6, with short 

 filaments. Ovaries distinct on a disk-like receptacle. Achenes 

 numerous, channeled on the back, crowded in a whorl. (Alisma, 

 the Greek name, used by Dioscorides.) 



1. A. Plantago L. Watek Plantain. Kootstoek perennial, 

 becoming almost bulbous by the sheathing bases of the petioles; 

 leaves radical, the blades elliptic-oblong, acute, 2 in. long, varying to 

 8 in. long and 3 in. broad and tapering from the middle to each end, 

 on petioles twice as long; flowering stems from 1 J to 2J ft. high, the 

 whorled branches unequal in length and forming a loose, pyramidal 

 panicle; flowers white, on pedicels 1 in. long or less; petals 1 line 

 long; achenes very strongly flattened, oblong, 1 line long, 17 to 25 in 

 each whorl. 



Common along the margins of ponds, rivers, and marshy shores of 

 lakes: San Francisco; Alameda; Stockton; Lower Sacramento; Napa 

 Valley. The aquatic forms have very narrow leaves. 



2. SAGITTARIA L. Arkow-head. 

 Marsh or aquatic herbs with fibrous roots and milky juice. Leaves 

 broadly sheathing, commonly sagittate or sometimes without basal 

 lobes or even without a blade. Stems scape-like, bearing one to sev- 

 eral whorls of fiowers, usually in threes, with membranous bracts. 



