29 
HYDROCOTYLE nitidula. 
Shining Pennywort, 
PENTANDRIA DIGYNIA Nat. Ono. UMBELLIFERM. 
Trib. II. HYDROCOTYLIN.E. UmbellcB imperfecta. Involucra obsolela mil 
nulla. Folia cum petiolo conjluentia subsimplida. 
Gen. Char. — UmbellcB imperfectae. Fructus raphe dorsoque angustis, hoc 
tricostato, lateribus compressis, subrotundi, cortice plerumque articulato- 
venoso. Folia subrotunda. — Spreng. 
Hydrocotyle nitidula; foliis orbiculato-reniformibus 5-7 lobatis lobis 
trifidis, floribus capitatis subsessilibus, capitulo pedunculate, pedun- 
culis petiolo brevioribus, 
H. nitidula, Rich. Motiogr. du Gen. Hydroc. p. 60. t. 63. f. 33. 
Stems a few inches in length, subsimple, slender, and, as well as the whole 
plant, perfectly smooth, and somewhat shining, creeping, throwing out 
roots at the joints. Leaves solitary, or rarely two from the same point 
of the stem, scarcely more than half an inch in diameter, orbicular, but cut 
down to the insertion of the footstalk at the base, so as to be somewhat 
reniform, 5 or 7 cleft, nerved, segments subcuneate, trifid at the extre- 
mity, petiolated, the petiole about an inch and a half or nearly two inches 
long, terete, with 2 ovate stipules at the base. 
Heads ofjlowers upon axillary peduncles, which are not above half the length 
of the petioles of the leaves, very slender, composed of about 10 crowded 
flowers, each having an ovate scale or leaflet of the involucre at its base, 
Germen ovate. Petals greenish- white. 
Specimens of this delicate little species of Hydrocotyle^ 
agreeing in all respects with the H. nitidula of Richard, 
were sent to me from the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, having 
heen there raised from seeds received from Russia under the 
name of H. Sibthorpioides, but from what country originally 
derived did not appear. Richard gives the H. nitidula as a 
native of Java, and speaks of it as being closely allied to the 
VOL. I. 
