281 



Sub-Order I. Xaiadacese. 



Style very short : stigmas 3 or 2, elongated : seed erect : 

 embryo straight: pollen globose. — Leaves in three's or opposite, 

 nerveless, repand-toothed. 



GENUS 1. NAJAS. 



IKonoeoia. Pentandria. Sex: Syst: 



Deriv. From Nmas, a water-nymph, alluding to the habitation 

 of the plants. 



Gbn. Chae. Flowers dioecious or monoscious, naked, sessile in 

 the axils of the leaves, solitary : males reduced to a solitary stamen, 

 each inclosed in a cup-shaped spathe : anther sub-sessile, 4-comered, 

 sharply pointed, 4-celled, bursting the spathe when flowering, sus- 

 tained by the excrescent filament, and dehiscing at the apex by four 

 revolute valves : poUen sub-globose : female flowers reduced to a 

 pistil, destitute of a spathe: ovary sessile, 1-ovuled, ovule erect: 

 style very short or short, continuous with the ovary : stigmas 2 — 3, 

 elongated, internally papUlose : fruit sub-drupaceous, 1 -seeded : 

 seed erect, straight : embryo exalbumiuous, straight. — 'Aquatic 

 herbs, submersed, branched: leaves tern, rarely opposite, sessile, 

 much dilated and sheathing at the base, flat, nerveless, repand- 

 toothed : teeth somewhat thorny. 



(1) N. Inmoa. ( Chamisso^J 



client. Cham, in Linnsea, iv. 501. 



Syn. Fluvialis Indica, Pers. syn. II. 530. — N. dichotoma, Roxb. 

 Jlor. Ind. III. 749. CauUinia Indica, Willd. 



Spec. Chae. Stem round, dichotomons : leaves tern or opposite, 

 elongated, very narrow-linear, remotely denticulate : sheath dentate, 

 ciliated : ovaries axillary, solitary, sessile : style 2-cleft. 



Bengal. Tranquebar. "Western Coast. Common in tanks. 

 Flowering in the rains. 



Sub-Order 11. Fotamogetonese. 



Flowers pseudo-hermaphrodite : males surrounded by a 

 bract : stigma sub-sessile, simple : pollen globose. 



