Cymodocea.] CXLVIII. NAIADEiE. ITIS; 



longitudinal slits. Female flowers of 2 distinct carpels, each tapering into a 

 filiform style with 2 stigmatic branches or lobes ; ovule 1 in each carpel, laterally- 

 attached near the top. Fruit-carpels 1-seeded, indehiscent (or at length opening 

 in 2 valves?). Seed ovoid or oblong, testa membranous. Embryo with a short 

 thick radicular base, grooved at the top with a slender incurved cotyledonous end. — 

 Marine submerged plants, with a creeping rhizome rooting at the joints, the leafy 

 stems very short or lengthened and erect. Leaves linear, narrow and long or 

 rather broader and short, with a short sheathing base, in some species enclosed 

 at the base in a long sheathing scale. 



The genus extends over the Old World coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific as veil as of the- 

 Indian and Mediterranean seas, with one West Indian species. 

 Leaves at or near the ends of rather hard stems closely marked with the 

 annular scars of fallen leaves rounded and ciliate-seriulate at the end ; 



no external scales 1. C. ciliata. 



Leaves narrow on short stems, the nodes or scars rather distant, enclosed at • 

 the base in a sheathing scale. 



Leaves 2 to 3 lines broad ....;,. 2, C.serrulata. 



Leaves 1 to IJ line broad ,• 3. C. isoetifolici. 



1. C. ciliata (ciliate), Eh-enh. ; Aschers. inLinmca, xxxv. 162, ajut in Anleit. 

 Tr/.s.v. Beob. 363 ; Benth. FL Aiistr. vii. 178. Rhizome emitting hard almost 

 ■woody stems of 3 or 4in. to nearly Iffc., marked with numerous annular scars of 

 fallen leaves and ending in a tuft of broad linear leaves, usually falcate, 3 to 6in. 

 long and about 4 lines broad, rounded and ciliate-serrulate at the end, contracted 

 at the base into a short brown sheath clasping the stem all round, the margins- 

 closing at the base but not united. Fructification unknown. — C. scrridata, F. v. 

 M. Fragm. viii. 218, but not of E. Br. 



Hab.: Various places along the coast from Northumberland Islands to Cape tjpstart, FifxaZaii.. 



2. C. serrulata (serrulate), Aschers. in Anleit. Wiss. Beob. 362 ; Benth. FL 

 Austr. vii. 178. Leafy branches not so hard as in C. ciliata, and the leaves or 

 annular scars of fallen leaves distant. Leaves broad-linear, shorter than in 

 0. ciliata, varying from 2 to 3in. long, rounded and minutely denticulate or 

 almost entire at the end, the sheathing base rather longer than in C. ciliata.. 

 Fructification unknown. — Caulinia seirulata, R. Br. Prod. 889. 



Hab.: Port Denison and other tropical localities. 



3. C. isoetifolia (Isoetes-leaved), Aschers. in I.inna-a, xxxv. 163 ; Benth. FL 

 Austr. vii. 178. Habit of C. serrulata, but the leaves much narrower and 

 remarkable when in fructification by the sheathing bracts, rather numerous, in a, 

 dichotomous cyme, although each pair encloses only a single flower. 



Hab.: Edgecombe Hay, i'itzalan. . 



Oeder CXLIX. ERIOCAULE^. 



Flowers unisexual, in androgynous or rarely dioecious heads, with imbricate,, 

 scarious dry or rarely herbaceous bracts, 1 under each flower, and usually a few 

 outer ones empty. Perianth normally of 6 or 4 hyaline or scarious small seg- 

 ments in 2 rows, the inner ones immediately under the stamens or ovary, the 

 outer ones lower down on the stipes or receptacle, but occasionally reduced in 

 numbers, or those of one row more or less united, especially in the males.. 

 Stamens as many as the inner segments of the perianth and opposite to them or 

 twice that number ; filaments short ; anthers small, 2-celled, the cells opening in 

 longitudinal slits. Ovary of 8 or 2 lobes and cells, with 1 pendulous ovule in 

 each cell ; style single, with 3 or 2 filiform stigmatic branches. Capsules slightly 

 enlarged from the ovary and of the same shape, the lobes opening dorsally in 

 2 valves. Seeds sohta,ry in each cell, globular or ovoid, usually striate or 



