MISS A. M. GELDART OX STRATIOTES ALOIDES, L. I93 
(Irm. figs. 1 and 2). In the latter case only a few seeds had 
come to full development, in the earlier case more. Irmisch 
considered that on this the difference among the fruits in 
form, dimension and direction may well be based. 
The fruits at Sutton in September did not bend more than 
my sketch (figs. 4 and 5) represents, for though they had 
bent so much as to tear away parts of the spathe-leaves, the 
peduncles were hanging straight down below the plant, 
nearly rotten and quite limp. I have in fact painted these 
specimens wrong way up. I have not ascertained why the 
fruit bends. Mr. Bennett suggests that it may be a question 
of buoyancy ; neither do I know yet whether the fruit enters 
the water by bending of the peduncle before the plant sinks. 
After sketching these fruits I dissected them, and found the 
seeds minute and quite undeveloped. 
At Copenhagen in November and December, 1824, Xolte 
found Stratiotes abundant under the water, apparently 
with the most beautiful fruits, some of which had large 
seeds to the outward appearance perfectly developed ; yet 
on closer inspection it was found that only the cuticles were 
perfect, they even contained only a part of the inner mass. 
In Seeland only the female plant is found ; this is therefore 
what we may expect in England. 
The capsule which from the first takes the place of the long 
pedicel ofithe male flower is ovoid, diminishing at both ends, 
bluntly hexagonal, two of its angles usually more prominent 
and provided with sharpish prickles on the edges, otherwise 
glabrous. After the flower has withered the upper part of the 
fruit terminates with 3 blunt teeth, from the centre of which 
a small conical body protrudes to which the styles are attached, 
and at the extreme point is 6-cleft. The husk of the fruit is 
thick and leathery, enclosing a fleshy layer from whose inner 
surface 12 fleshy extensions stand out like partition-walls 
arranged in pairs, and run together towards the centre without 
being fastened either to one another or to a central column. 
In the young state these extensions wind round one another 
at the edges and form 6 false compartments .with partition 
walls wound spirally. The pairs of these extensions are 
