XVII. BUTOMB^. 797 



XVI. TRIURWE^} 



(Tkiubiace^, Miers.— Teiubacb^, Gardn. — Triukidace^, imciZ.— Triukidejb, 



Dene, and Le Maout.) 



[Very slender white or discoloured rarely green herbs ; roots fibrous. Stem 

 simple, rarely divided, filiform, straight or flexuous, erect. Leaves 0, or bract-like, 

 alternate, nerveless. Tlowees minute, racemose or spiked, monoecious or dioecious, 

 rarely unisexual ; pedicels bracteate. Perianth 3-4-6-8-partite, hyaline ; segments 

 connate at the base, valvate, tips often caudate. Stamens few, various in number, 

 sessile in the base of the perianth, usually seated on an androphore; anthers 

 4-celled, 2-valved, lobes rarely separated. Cabpels many, on a central receptacle, 

 1 -celled; style excentric, lateral or basal, smooth or feathery; stigma obsolete or 

 truncate or clavate ; ovule 1, basal, erect. Ripe carpels obovoid, coriaceous and 

 indehiscent, or 2-valved, 1-seeded. Seed ovoid ; testa reticulate ; nucleus cellular. 



Section I. Tbideie Ji. — Perianth-lobes with twisted tails that are inflexed in bud. Anther- 

 cells separate, each 2-locellate. O^ary gibbous ; style ventral. Triuris, Hexun's. 



Section II. Soiaphile^. — Perianth-lobes without tails. Anther-cells confluent. Style 

 almost basilar. Soridium, Sciaphila, Syalisma. 



A very singular little order, well deiined and illustrated by Miers in the LinnEean Transactions, 

 from which work the above descriptions are taken. According to him they are allied to Alismacece ; 

 in .the neighbourhood of which the late R. Brown also informed me they must in his opinion be 

 placed. 



Trimidem are natives of tropical forests in America and Asia, growing on mossy banks and dead 

 leaves, with hardly any attachment to the ground. Hyalisma is a native of Ceylon (it is referred to 

 Sdaphila by Thwaites) ; Sciaphila of both Asia and America ; all the other genera are American. 

 —Ed.] 



XVII. BVTOME^. 

 (BuTOME^, L.-C. Richard. — Bittomaoe.^, Endl., Lindl.) 



Flowebs 5. FEUiATJCTsB-merous, 2-seriat6 [calyx and corolla). Stamens %jpo- 

 gynous, 9—ao . Ovaries 6-00 , whorled, more or less distinct, 1-celled, many-ovuled ; 

 OVULES erect, anatropous or eampylotropous, placentation parietal. Fruit follicular. 

 Seeds numerous. Embryo straight or hoohed, easalbiiminous ; radicle inferior. — 

 Marsh herbs, perennial, stemless. Flowers solitary or umbelled. 



Perennial marsh or aquatic heebs, stemless, glabrous, sometimes milky. 

 Leaves all radical ; petiole semi-sheathing at the base ; blade linear or oval, large, 

 nerved, sometimes arrested. Scapes simple, 1-many-flowered. Flowebs 5 , regular, 

 solitary (Hydrocleis), or umbelled [Butomus, Limnocharis) ; pedicels with membranous 



' Ses tribe TViurideis of Burmanniacecs, p. 779.— E». 



