19 
ORONTIUM AQUATICUM. 
Aquatic Orontium, 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA—Nat. Oed. AROID^M. 
Gen. Char — Spadix cylindricus tectus flosculis. Spatha nulla. Perian- 
thium sknplex, hexaphyllum, foliolis inflexis. Stylus nullus. Utriculus 
monospermus. 
Orontium aquaticum; foliis lanceolato-ovatis.-— PF2Z/d. 
O. aquaticum. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 463. — Amcen. Acad. v. iii. p. t. 1. f. 3.-- 
WiLLD. Sp. PL V. ii. p. 199.— Ait. Hort. Kerv. ed. 2. v. ii. p. 306.— Pursh, 
Fl. Amer. Sept. v. i. p. 235. — Nutt. Am. PL v. i. p. 227- 
Whole plant smooth (according to Smith), with floating foliage, and like a 
Potamogeton in its mode of growth. Leaves upon long cylindrical stalks, 
varying, as it would appear, remarkably in their form ; in my specimens 
broadly elliptical and acute, characterised by most authors as lanceolate- 
ovate, whilst Pursh observed a variety growing in salt-marshes neev 
New York, with almost linear leaves. They are quite entire at the mar- 
gin, nearly plane on the surface, dark green, and marked with a num- 
ber of parallel ribs, which are connected by faint transverse lines. The 
lamina of the leaf is fixed upon the summit of the petiole in such a man- 
ner as to leave a depression in front, and the petiole becomes almost im- 
mediately cylindrical. 
Scape long, cylindrical, green, thickened, and much yellower above ; termi- 
nating in the conico-cylindrical greenish- white spadix, about 2 inches in 
length, totally destitute of spatha. 
Florets crowded, composed of a single perianth, of 6 yellowish-green leajlets, 
fleshy, convex, the margins thin, and somewhat scariose, the extremities 
inflexed, so that the essential organs of the flower are almost concealed 
by them. The upper florets have generally 5 or 4 leaflets to the peri- 
anth. Within each leaflet is a single stamen. Its Jtlament short, broad, 
and flat, a little contracted above, and terminated by the 2-lobed and 
2-celled, yellowish anthers, which open vertically. Pollen yellow. Pistil 
semiglobose, with 5 longitudinal slightly elevated lines. Style none. 
Stigma conico-obtuse. Within the ovary is one cell, and a single ovule, 
fixed near one extremity by its under side to the base of the cell, of a 
transversely oblong form. As I have not had the opportunity of seeing 
the fruit of this plant myself, I shall transcribe what Mr Nuttall says 
of it in his genera of North American Plants : " Utriculus naked, green, 
VOL. I. 
