24 
BOTANICAL, INDEX. 
the fleshy perinth; 2 of the cells of the ovary barren, and a 1-celled atriculated fruit, 
with a single suspended oval seed. 
The following list of species, from Sir Joseph Paxton’s “Botanical Dictionary,” 
are now included in this genera, with their habitat, etc., according to latest authori- 
ties. (Sir Joseph Paxton’s list includes all the species now known as Eichornia.) 
Species. 
Color 
of Jdabitat. 
Flower 
Height. 
Cerulea. 
Cordata. Linn. 
Cordata, var. Angustifolia. Pursh. 
Cordata, var. Lancifolia. Mulh. 
Vaginalis. 
Perennial. 
Perennial. 
Perennial. 
Perennial. 
Evergr’n. 
Blue. North America. 
Blue. North America. 
Blue. North America. 
Blue. North America. 
Blue. Japan & E. Ind. 
1J ft, 
2 ft. 
2 ft. 
2 ft. 
1830 
1759 
1816 
1815 
By reference to the above table, it will be seen that the Pontederia were unknown 
in the old world until introduced from America, and are represented by only one 
species in Australasia; while the four American forms have a long geographical 
range, extending, according to Sir Joseph Hooker, (Descriptive and Analytical Bot- 
any,) from 40“ North latitude to 30“ Soutli latitude. Recent explorations and sur- 
veys of the country, together with observations of botanists and travelers, have ] 
established the fact that it is indigenous much further North than Sir Joseph Hooker 
supposed. A brief and incomplete summary of our efforts to find its northern limit 
by correspondence may be of interest to some of our readers, and we will give it here. 1 
In the list of plants as given in Thompson’s Natural History of Vermont, we find it j 
enumerated, but as no locality is given, the information is too indefinite to be of much 
practical value, as the State extends from about 42“ 45' to 45“ North latitude, or about 
135 geographical miles. It is, however, definitely located by C. G. Pringle as along 
the whole northern border of Vermont, lat. 45°, and extending to the St. Lawrence 1 
river, lat. 47°, in the same longitude of Vermont; also, at Ann Arbor, Mich., lat.. ' 
42“ — ( Winchell) ; at Lansing, Mich., lat. 42“ 45 — (\V. J. Beall); at the mouth of Bad 
River, on Lake Superior, Minn., lat. 46" 30 — (Dr. C. 0. Parry) ; and on the James I 
River, Dakota, lat. 47" — (Mrs. E. S. Tupper.) This we had concluded to be about its j 
northern limit, as in the very completeand carefully prepared list of plants published j 
in the Canadian Report of the United States and British North American Boundary j 
Commission (1875) it is not enumerated. But judge of our surprise to learn only a 
few days ago, in a private letter from C. F. Wheeler, of Michigan, that it is recorded 1 
as found in the valley of the Saskatchawan River, British North America, about 
latitude 53" North. 
As Pontederia cordata is our commonest native species, we will more especially I 
consider it now. A scientific description reads: 
PONTEDEBIA COP I)A TA — L. ( Warnpee or Pickerel Weed.) 
Leaves, arrow-heart shaped, blunt, with rounded lobes, finely nerved, from 3 to 8 ! 
inches long; flowers, dense, in a cylindrical spike about 2 inches long, the peduncle | 
enclosed in a convolute spathe-like bract; upper lobe of the hardy perinth marked 
with a pair of small yellow spots; in bloom from July to September, or until frost; 1 
calyx tube in fruit crested with 6-toothed ridges; habitat, in water usually from one I 
to two feet deep, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains, and from Maine j 
to the southern coast of Florida and to Vera Cruz. 
This is the most northern species of all, the geographical center of which may be I 
considered as Northern Indiana, where it forms immense beds in the soft, peaty I 
swamps and marshes, usually in only a few inches of water, but often in only damp I 
or moist ground. Sometimes, however, it is found growing in water nearly three V 
feet deep, throwing up from 3 to 10 leaf-stocks, every one of which is terminated by 
a single raceme of flowers. In our aquarium, where we could study them best, we 1 
noticed that after the flowers had matured, all the portion of the flower-stem down to 1 
the first joint bends over to a horizontal position, as represented in Fig. 92, c, in \ 
which position it remains until the seed are ripe, after which the stem withers and 
decays. Our illustrations (pages 22 and 25) give a better idea of the plant and its I 
anatomy than words can do, so we will notice them in detail. Fig. 91 represents two i 
plants, as they are often seen in their normal condition. Fig. 92 represents a single 
plant, (many times smaller than the actual plant,) as usually seen when taken from 
the water and earth, with the radicle (root) leaf at A , the spathe at B , the ripening 
panicle of seed at C, the creeping rhizome at D , showing the manner of growth, as 
also the young leaves breaking out and springing up to form new crowns or branches 
of the rhizome; while at E is given a cross section of a rhizome nearly the usual full 
size, showing its fine porous structure. Underneath the rhizome D, and also the 
section E, is seen the small fibrous roots growing almost in a mass or mat. Fig. 94 
represents at A the spathe and panicle of flowers, at B a panicle of flowers nearly 
