ALISMACE/E. 



797 



In wet ditches, bogs and marshes, 

 over the greater part of Europe, from 

 Spain to southern Sweden, but rare in 

 the east. In Britain, as widely dis- 

 persed as the common A., but not near 

 so frequent. Fl. summer and autumn. 

 Occasionally the flowering-stem bends 

 down, and forms fresh rooting and 

 leafy tufts at each whorl of flowers. 

 This state has been described as a spe- 

 cies, under the name of the creeping A. 

 (A. rejpens, Eng. Bot. SuppL t. 2722.) 



Tig. 959. 



3. Floating Alisma. Alisma natans, Linn. (Fig. 960.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 775.) 



Very near the creeping varieties of the 

 lesser A. Stems slender, and floating 

 on the surface of the water, producing at 

 every node a tuft of small ovate or ob- 

 long, stalked leaves, and 2 or 3 flowers 

 like those of the lesser A., whilst the 

 radical leaves of the original tuft are all 

 reduced to a linear leafstalk, scarcely 

 dilated towards the top. Carpels in a 

 globular head, like those of the lesser 

 A., but much more pointed, and mark- 

 ed with 12 to 15 slender longitudinal 

 ribs. 



In ponds and still waters, in western 

 and some parts of central Europe ; not 

 observed in southern Europe, and ex- 

 tending northward only to Denmark 

 and western Scandinavia. In Britain, 

 scattered over a few localities in western England, and more plentiful 

 in western Ireland. Fl. summer and autumn. 



Fig. 960. 



