THE FAMILY OF MARE's TAILS 295 



are known as WiUow-herhs. The Epilobiums are generally 

 comparatively msignificant, though often damty little plants. 

 Many of them show interesting devices for securing 

 pohination. 



Haloragidaceae. 



The Family of Mabe's Tails. 



Distribution.— A small family, widely distributed, but of little importance. 

 All the British species are aquatic. The flowers are inconspicuous, and often 

 devoid of petals. The Haloragidaceae are closely related to the Fuchsia family, 

 but the flowers in the former are often much reduced. 



GemiH Haloragis. 



Herbs, erect or creeping. Leaves usually opposite. Flowers usually 

 axillary, rarely in spikes or panicles. Calyx-lobes 4 ; petals 4 or ; stamens 4-8. 

 Fruit a small nut, 2-4-celled. .5 sp. 



Halopagis erecta^'= (The Erect Haloragis). 



An erect or sub-erect herb, 1 ft. -3 ft. high. Stem 4 -angled ; leaves opposite, 

 Jin.-ljin. long, coarsely serrate. Flowers minute, green, in drooping, terminal 

 racemes. Nut 4-angled, green. Both islands : dry hiUs. Stewart Island. Fl. 

 Nov. -Jan. (iJ. alata of Cheeseman, etc.) 



Genus Mtjiioplnjllu in. 



Aquatic or marsh plants. Leaves usually whorled, much dissected when 

 submerged. Flowers small, axillary, white. Pistillate flower destitute of petals. 

 Stamens 4-8. Fruit, 2-4 1-seeded nuts. (Name from the Greek, signifying a 

 thousand leaves, from the deeply-cut foliage). 



Mypiophyllum elatinoides (The Elatine-like Myriophylhmi) . 



Leaves 4 in a whorl. Flowers white, on a leafy spike, 2 in. -6 in. long. 

 Fruit of 4 minute nuts. 



This species may be taken as typical of a water plant. It 

 grows submerged in ponds and streams, and, consequently, 

 requires a very different structure from a land-growing plant. 



*Das Pflanzenreich (Engler), under Haloragidaceae. 



