534 FLORA OF TEXAS. 



** Filaments short, thickened at the base. 



S. SIMPLEX, Piirsh. Scape slender, commonly prostrate 

 in fruit, simple or branclied ; leaves linear or lanceolate, 

 acute at each end, 3-nerved, erect, the earliest mostly desti- 

 tute of a blade ; bracts membranaceous ; fioivers small, all 

 on long filiform pedicels ; stamens 10-12, hairy at the base; 

 achenia obo\^te, wing-keeled, beakless. (S. graminea, 

 Michx.) Shallow ponds in the pine-barrens. May-Octo- 

 ber. Scape 10-15' high, usually longer the leaves. 



132. FROG'S-BIT FAMILY. Order, Hydrochari- 



DACE^. 



Aquatic herbs, with monoecious or dioecious/oz^er.9, from 

 a membranaceous spathe ; sepals and petals 2, or the latter 

 wanting, distinct in the sterile flower, united into a tube 

 in the fertile, and coherent with the 1-9-celled ovary ; sta- 

 mens 3-12; ovules numerous, ascending, orthotropous; 

 stigmas 3-9 ; frtiit indehiscent, many-seeded ; embryo 

 straight, without albumen. 



SYNOPSIS. 



* Ovary l-celled ; stigmas 3. 

 Flowers dioecious. Spathe peduncled. Stamens 3. Leaves long, linear.. YmxisruEBlA. 



* Cells of the ovary and stigmas &-9. 

 Mowers moncecioiis. Stamens 6-9, monadelphous. Leaves cordate, petioled. .LmNOBitTM. 



VALLISNERIA, Micheli. Tape Grass. 



Flowers dioecious; sterile flowers numerous, minute, 

 crowded on a spadix, which is inclosed in an ovate 3 -leaved 

 short-stalked spathe; calyx 3-parted; corolla none; sta- 

 metis 3; fertile flowers solitary, inclosed in a tubular 

 spathe, and borne on a very long and mostly spiral scape ; 

 sepals and small petals 3, united and coherent with the cy- 

 lindrical l-celled many-ovuled ovary ; stigmas 3, each 



