The BRITISH HERBAL. 
231 
The Water Cakrop. 
Trapa. 
The root is very long, {lender, and hung with 
a multitude of fibres. 
The leaves are numerous, and each is fup- 
ported on a long, Qender footftalk : they arc 
broad, ihort, and in figure half round ; being 
flat where they join the ftalk, and rounded each 
way from thence: they are of a flefhy fubftance 
and of a dead green. 
The footftalks are round, fmooth, light, and 
hollow. 
The flowers rife among the leaves, and are 
fupported each on a fingle, naked, footftalk, 
nearly as long as thofe of the leaves : they are 
large and white. 
The feed-Veflel is large, and extremely hard: 
it is armed with four very flrong and fliarp 
prickles, and contains only one feed. The ker- 
nel is very fweet : it has the tade of a cheft- 
nur. 
It is frequent in the warmer parts of Europe, 
and in the Eaft, and will live in the fait, as well 
as frefh, water. 
All the writers call it Tribulus apialkuSy oi 
Trapa. 
The fruit is pleafant and nourilhlng. It is eaten 
in fome places as a delicacy, and in others as a 
neceflary food being ground to a kind of flour 
and made iato bread. 
f/:>e tND of the FOURTEENTH CLASS. 
THE 
