Najas. 



NAJADACEyE. 



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at each end. Testa (or rather tegmen ?) very thin. Embryo a fleshy mass entirely filling 

 the shell, the lower end the radicular. 



Ponds and slowly flowing waters : common. July - September. 



Willdenow separated from Najas several species, of which he formed his genus Caulinia, 

 and some distinguished botanists have adopted it ; but R. Brown and Kunth have reunited 

 the two genera. I have but once seen what I take to be the staminate flowers of the American 

 plant, but have not had an opportunity of examining those of any foreign species of Najas. 

 In Caulinia, according to Endlicher, the ovary is invested with an adherent cellular tunic, 

 which is not the case in Najas. If there is such a tunic in N. Canadensis, perhaps the two 

 longer and exterior of the subulate bodies that I have considered divisions of the style, belong 

 to it, while the shorter ones (which have certainly a more stigmatose look than the others) 

 are the real styles or stigmas. 



2. ZOSTERA. Linn.; Endl. gen. 1659. GRASS-WRACK. 

 [From the Greek word rosier, signifying a girdle or ribbon, which the leaves somewhat resemble.] 



Flowers monoecious or dioecious, naked and without bracts, seated in two rows on the side of 

 a flat spadix. Anthers ovate, sessile, opening longitudinally ; the pollen confervoid. Pistils 

 alternating with the anthers, ovate : style subulate : stigmas 2, capillary. Ovule pendulous, 

 orthotropous. Utricle membranaceous, bursting irregularly. Seed pendulous, globose. — 

 A marine submersed herb, with a jointed creeping rhizoma, and very long linear and narrow 

 leaves. Spadix arising from a sheathing base of the leaf. 



1. Zostera marina, Linn. Eel-grass. Common Grass-iorack. 



Leaves somewhat 3-nerved, entire; stem roundish. — Linn. sp. 2. p. 968 ; Engl, bot.t. 

 467; Pursh, p. 2; Ell. sk. 2. p. 514; Bigel. Jl. Bost. p. 334; Torr. compend. 



p. 330 ; Beck, hot. p. 384 ; Kunth, enum. 3. p. 116. 



Perennial. Stems rooting at the joints. Leaves 1-2 feet or more in length and usually 

 about two lines wide, rather obtuse, membranaceous. " Spadix linear, arising from a sheathing 

 portion of the leaf, which thus forms the spathe. Flowers green. Pistils and anthers alter- 

 nate ; generally 2 anthers and then one pistil, both ovate or oblong-ovate." Hooker. 



Saltwater bays, and thrown upon the seashore in great abundance during storms. I have 

 never found it in flower. In Europe it is employed for packing bottles and earthenware, as 

 well as for mattrasses. 



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