PONTEDERIACE.*:. 391? 



****** ^ ems leaf-bearing ; leaves terete, short. Stamens 6. 



10. J. NODOSUS, L. Jointed Rush. 



Stem erect, slender, 3 to 5-leaved ; leaves terete, short ; fie ads 1 to 2, or several 

 and clustered, globose, 10 to20-tlowered; sepals lanceolate, awl-pointed, nearly as 

 long as the slender 3-angled capsule. 



Gravelly borders of streams, &c, common. Aug. Ebotstocls slender. Stem 6 

 to "20 ioches highi Heads in a loose panicle, or in a dense cluster. Flowers brown- 

 ish or greenish. 



Order 128. PONTEDERIACEJE. —Pickerel-weed Family. 



Aquatic herbs, with perfect more or less irregular flowers from a spathe ; the petr„. 

 Ibid G-merous perianth free frorwthe S-celled ovary, and the 3 or 6 mostly unequal or 

 dissimilar stamens inserted in its throat. Perianth-lobes colored alike. Styles I: 

 8TI8MA 3 to-6-cleft. Capsule- 3-celled, 3-valved, loculicidal. Sjseds numerous, with 

 somewhat mealy albumen. 



1. PONTEDERIA, Linn. Pickerel- weed. 



Dedicated to rontedera, Prof, at Padua at the beginning of the last century. 



Perianth funnel-form, 6-cleft, 2-lipped ; the 3 lower 

 lobes spreading, and their claws, more or less seperate down 

 to the base. Stamens 6j unequally inserted, 3 near the 

 base and 3 near the summit of the tube : anthers oval,, 

 blue. Ovary 3-ceii'ed ; 2 of the cells empty, the other 

 containing a single suspended ovule. Utricle 1-celled, 

 filled with the single seed, — Stout herbs, growing in shalloio 

 water, with thick creeping roolstocks, producing erect long- 

 petioled mostly cordate leaves, and a 1-leaved scape, termi- 

 nated by a spike of ' violet-blue ephemeral jibwers. 



P. CORDATA, L. Common Pickerel-weed. 



Leaves arrow-heart-shaped, blunt ; spilce very dense, from a spathe-like bract. — 

 Var. akgustifoua, Terr., has triangular-elongated and tapering leaves, scarcely 

 cordate at base. 



Ponds, common. July— Sept. Stem 1 to 2' feet high, bearing a single smooth: 

 glossy leaf, 4 to 7 inches long and 1% to 3 inches wide. Flowers aggregated by 2c- 

 and 3s, sessile bright blue, with a pair of small yellow spots on the upper lobe. 



2. HETERANTHERA, Ruiz & Pavon. Mud Plantain. 



Gr. hetera different, and ancr, for anther; the anthers being dissimilar. 



Spathe several-flowered. Perianth salver-form, with a 

 slender tube, the limb somewhat 6-parted. Stamens 3, 2 

 ©f the anthers ovate, yellow, the 3d oblong or arrow-shaped, 

 greenish. Capsule incompletely 3-celled, many-seeded. — 

 Creeping or floating low herbs, with mosrfy rounded long> 



