170 Podostemacea. 



Podostemon is a very distinct genus, being distinguished 

 from all the others by having four unilateral filaments. The 

 two external ones are barren, and are what Endlicher and 

 others consider segments of a perigonium, but which in 

 eight Indian and one North American species of the genus 

 which I have examined, I find, as previously remarked, to 

 belong to the staminal whorl. The two intermediate fila- 

 ments are united nearly to the apex, and each fork bears a 

 2-celled anther. In the first supplement to his * Genera 

 Plantarum,' Endlicher has constituted a new genus under 

 the name of Hydrobryum for the two East Indian species 

 of Podostemon published by Griffith in the * Asiatic Re- 

 searches,' but on very insufficient grounds. The only point 

 in which he makes the character of the new genus to differ 

 from that of Podostemon, is in the nature of the spathe, that 

 of Hydrobryum being said to burst irregularly, while in the 

 other it is said to be diphyllous. Even did this difference 

 exist, which it does not, it is far from being of sufficient im- 

 portance to constitute a generic distinction. In my Herba- 

 rium I possess a fine set of specimens of the original species 

 of Podostemon (P. ceratophyllum), collected in North 

 America by Beyrich, and the examination of several flowers, 

 enables me to state, that the nature of the organ in question, 

 is quite what I find it to be in the Indian species. The spathe 

 is glabrous, and bursts irregularly at the apex into three or 

 four obtuse lobes. I find besides, that in the structure of 

 the stamens, the capsule, and the seeds, this plant agrees in 

 every respect with the Indian ones, proving the accuracy of 

 the original views of Brown and Griffith. In Podostemon 

 the pollen presents a remarkable peculiarity, being of an 



I have no opportunity of consulting Bongard's paper on this tribe, but judging 

 from the specific character of his Lacis membranacea, which Endlicher refers to 

 Marathrum, that species seems to agree very well with mine in habit. The most 

 remarkable points connected with the present plant are the curious pits which enter 

 the frond horizontally on its upper surface, and out of which the solitary flowers 

 proceed, and the reniform laciniated stigmata. 



