THE WATER STARWORT— continued. 
A superficial resemblance to some of the Chickweeds has given Callitriche the 
popular name of Water Chickweed and suggested an affinity with the Caryophyllacece. 
Bentham and Hooker placed the group with the Mare’s-tails ( Hippuris ) and Water 
Milfoils ( Myriophyllum ), the British members of the Family H aloragidacece ; but though 
these have opposite or whorled exstipulate leaves and minute flowers, their 
inferior ovary would seem sufficient to separate them from the Water Starworts. 
Again, the fruit in the plants now under consideration, consisting as it does of two 
carpels which become divided into four one-seeded chambers by the ingrowth of the 
two midribs, has naturally suggested relationship with Verbenacece or Boraginacece. 
The pendulous, anatropous ovule, however, with a ventral raphe, has made Engler, 
Eichler, and Warming agree in placing Callitrichacece near to Euphorbiacece. 
In Callitriche palustris Linne, but not in C. autumnalis Linne, the rare deep-water 
form, the surface is covered with minute scattered, stellate hairs or scales which give 
a glistening appearance to the plant. The minute axillary flowers are generally 
unisexual and monoecious, the stamens being the only part of C. palustris to be 
above water ; but occasionally the staminate flowers contain ovaries. There is no 
perianth ; but in C. palustris there is a pair of colourless, incurved, horn-like bracts 
below each flower. The staminate flower consists of a single stamen with a long, 
erect filament and a kidney-shaped anther, two-chambered below, but one-chambered 
above, which dehisces transversely. The pollen-grains have no outer coat, which 
renders them lighter than water and probably facilitates the actual fertilisation. The 
female flower is sometimes produced in an axil opposite to one bearing a staminate 
one ; but it is very often under water. It consists of a four-lobed ovary, sometimes 
shortly stalked, with two slender styles of considerable length, which become 
stigmatiferous throughout their length. The styles vary much in direction, being 
either erect, ascending, or reflexed. The late Lord Avebury suggested that “ the 
pollen is probably in some cases carried by insects, in others by wind, and sometimes 
by water.” 
The fruit varies considerably in the different forms or species, its four lobes 
being blunt, keeled, or winged down their backs. That of C. palustris is sessile, 
with swollen, bluntly keeled lobes. In all cases it ultimately breaks into four 
indehiscent one-seeded mericarps. 
Although Gerard, with a utilitarian mental attitude, styles the Water Starwort 
“ an herbe of small reckoning,” its bright green rosettes on the surface of a clear 
pool or spring are an attractive reminder of the useful work it has performed in 
oxygenating the water in which it grows. 
