190 MISS A. M. GELDART ON STRATIOTES ALOIDES, L. 
and female plants the spathe is gibbous on one side, this is 
therefore the true shape of the spathe and does not depend 
merely on the presence of the unequal pedicel bearing the fruit, 
as might be supposed from British specimens. Fig. i repre- 
sents a spathe with a double keel, unlike any other I have seen ; 
it also shows the flat and gibbous sides of the spathe. 
The male plant (Nolte, p. 29) has 3-6 flowers springing 
from the common spathe. Each pedicel is encircled by a 
separate one-leaved, membranous sheath, like a leaflet of 
the outer spathe, only smaller. The flowers i-i| inches in 
diameter, open in succession. Each cylindrical, semitrans- 
parent pedicel, bent S-shaped in the sheath, gradually 
straightens and lengthens till 2-3 inches long. The calyx 
consists of one leaf, 3-lobed, erect ; each lobe inch long, 
ovate-lanceolate, bluntly rounded, and drawn together 
hood-shaped at the top ; at the base, greenish-white, shining, 
semi-transparent. The lobes form on the under part a blunt 
triangle, then turn upwards again. The corolla has 3 petals, 
obovate, suborbicular, somewhat converging at the upper edge, 
milk-white with many transparent narrow stripes which 
converge at both ends and continue for the whole length of 
the petal. The petals are alternate with the sepals. The 
nectary (according to Nolte) consists of a circle of 15-24 
yellow, rather compressed, subulate rays rounded off at the 
upper end, spotted on the surface with darker yellow, of some- 
what leathery substance, and without any partitions inside.* 
They are attached at the base to short very attenuated white 
stalklets and surround the stamens in a circle. The stamens 
vary from 12 to 25. The filaments are subulate, compressed, 
erect, whitish, sometimes dotted, surrounding the centre of 
the flower without definite order. 
The female flower is almost similar to the male externally, 
but rather stouter and stronger. The spathe contains only 
one, rarely 2 flowers. Nolte says that each flower is also 
* The question how far Stratiotes is entirely or imperfectly dioecious being 
still under consideration, I have followed Nolte in calling this part the 
“nectary”; many Botanists think that in the female flower it consists of 
abortive stamens, see page 197. 
