THE BUCKBEAN— continued. 
There are five hypogynous honey-glands at the base of the corolla-tube : the five 
epipetalous stamens have subulate filaments and reddish anthers, with their chambers 
widely divergent at the base ; and the globose ovary is surmounted by a single style, 
with a slightly lobed stigma, and becomes a loculicidal capsule. The lovely fringe 
of the petals has been explained as rendering the flower more conspicuous and as a 
protection against rain ; but it seems to us more concerned with the exclusion of 
unwelcome insect-visitors. In Greenland, according to Warming, and apparently in 
some other places, the flowers are homomorphous, i.e. all have stamens and styles of 
the same length ; but in England, Holstein, and elsewhere they are dimorphically 
heterogonous like those of Primula. The long-styled form, in which the stigma is 
exserted, has a smaller stigma with finer papillae on its surface and oval pollen-grains 
about half the size of those of the other form. In this short-styled form, on the 
other hand, the anthers are exserted and produce large oval pollen-grains, and the 
stigma is larger, bilobed, and relatively coarsely-papillate. The flowers are said to be 
seldom visited by flying insects during the day ; but we have frequently noticed 
small crawling insects entangled in the fringe of hair round the petals. 
In reed-swamps, while Meadow-sweet, Purple and Yellow Loosestrife, and 
Valerian dominate the bank, with a lower growth of Marsh Marigold, Ragged 
Robin, and Square-stalked St. John’s- wort, and Hypericum elodes , Hydrocotyle , and 
Viola palustris as a ground vegetation, the Forget-me-not, the Marsh Cinquefoil, and 
the Reed ( Phragmites ) advance farther into the water ; but the Buckbean will often 
go beyond them all. It seldom, however, grows in very deep water. The bright 
green foliage and, still more, the beautiful flowers, have made it a favourite for 
planting in ponds and tanks. It is not difficult to propagate, the rhizome being 
divided and the pieces pegged down in the mud. If it is given room enough it will 
cover wide stretches of water with its leaves and blossoms. 
The whole plant abounds in a powerful and wholesome tonic bitter, which has, 
perhaps, been unduly neglected by our pharmacists. The leaves are still used as a 
remedy for ague and rheumatism in the Cambridgeshire fens, in the form of an 
infusion. They have a powerful sudorific effect. Linnaeus mentions their use in 
Sweden as a substitute for hops, a purpose to which they have been applied in more 
recent times in Silesia and other parts of Germany, and, judging from the local 
name Bog-hop , also, it would appear, in the north of England. 
