ORCHIDACEJE. 



803 



parts of England and Ireland, but in some cases introduced, and not 

 indigenous in Scotland. Fl. summer. 



III. STRATI OTES. STRATIOTES. 



A single species, with the flowers nearly of Frogbit, but a succulent 

 fruit, and a very different habit. 



I. Water Stratiotes. Stratiotes aloides, Linn. (Fig. 967.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 379. Water-soldier.) 



Pootstock creeping in the mud, pro- 

 ducing at the bottom of the water tufts 

 of sessile, long and narrow, more or less 

 succulent leaves, bordered by small, 

 pointed teeth. Peduncles rising from 

 among the leaves to a few inches above 

 the water, much thickened at the top, 

 bearing a spatha of 2 bracts, about an 

 inch long. Male flowers several in the 

 spatha, stalked, much like those of the 

 Frogbit but rather larger, with usually 

 12 or more stamens. Female flowers 

 solitary, and sessile in the spatha, with 

 a rather long tube, swollen below the 

 middle. Ovary and stigmas nearly as 

 in Frogbit, but the fruit is ovoid and 

 somewhat succulent. 



In lakes and watery ditches, dispersed 

 over Europe and ^Russian Asia, except 

 the extreme north. Common in the 

 fens of eastern England, occurs also in Lancashire and Cheshire, and 

 in some parts of Ireland, besides many ponds in England and Scot- 

 land into which it has been introduced. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 967. 



LXXX. THE ORCHID FAMILY. ORCHIDACEjE. 



Perennial herbs, with the roots or stock often thickened into 

 tubers, entire and parallel-nerved leaves, and irregular flowers, 



2 a 2 



