196 MISS A. M. GELDART ON STRATIOTES ALOIDES, L. 
inside at least 80 % of the expanded flowers. Withering 
says (Arr. Brit. PI. ed. 7. vol. iii. p. 668) the plant is sometimes 
quite disfigured by the depredations of insects. Bagous 
binodulus feeds on this plant in France ; and Linne noticed 
the larva of Phalcena stratiotis = Paraponyx stratiotata on 
Stratiotes ; for an account of this caterpillar, see Prof. Miall 
in Nat. Hist, of Aquatic Insects, 1903. p. 231. 
In chap. 4 Nolte describes the literature relating to Stratiotes. 
Before 1824, the plant had been declared dioecious by Zinn, 
Bergen, Fabricius, Oeder, Scholler, Roth and Ehrhart, and 
although they gave complete descriptions and illustrations 
many people appeared unwilling to deviate from Linne’s 
explanation, and still took Stratiotes to be polyandrous ; to 
which opinion Miller and Smith appear to have contributed 
much. 
Smith in Eng. Bot. 1797, and in Flora Brit. 1800, represented 
the plant in the Polyandria. He says in Eng. Bot. ed. 1., 
“ Linnaeus in his manuscripts quotes Bergen, Zinn, and 
Fabricius as having found the flowers dioicous, whereas 
he always observed them to be hermaphrodite. We have 
seen the stamina, apparently imperfect in some flowers, and 
the styles in others.” This is not quoted correctly by Nolte 
who makes out that the “ he ” is Smith,* whereas the “ he ” 
is Linnaeus, and Smith includes himself in the “ we ” of the 
following sentence. The words “ Flores abortu plerumque 
dioici ” in Flor. Brit. 2, p. 580, are pointed out by Nolte, but 
he omits the “ pedunculi uniflori ” of the preceding sentence. 
In Eng. Flora, vol. 3, p. 35, 2nd ed., Smith says : “ the anthers 
are occasionally imperfect in one flower, the stigmas in another, 
whence some curious but superficial observers have thought 
the flowers dioecious ; but such casual imperfection in those 
parts is frequent in plants that increase much by root.” 
I cannot find that Smith mentions Nolte’s book. 
Nolte points out that in Hooker’s ‘ Flora Scotica ’ (1821, 
p. 171) the plant is again represented as hermaphrodite, 
Hooker remarking that “ sometimes the flowers are dioecious, 
* Nolte, p. 26, 27 : — “ allein er (Smith) habe sie immerals Hermaphrodit 
beobachtet.” 
