THE MARSH ARROW-GRASS— continued. 
in the great majority of cases they are hypogynous. Both stamens and carpels vary 
in number within the widest limits, and the latter may be free ( apocarpous ) or united. 
It is, perhaps, one sign of the degeneration of the structure of the seed, in a group 
most members of which have great facilities for other methods of multiplication, that, 
contrary to the general rule among Monocotyledons, there is little or no albumen in 
the seeds of the Helobieae. 
Of the eight Families comprised in this Order, the Arrow-grasses belong to the 
Juncaginace# , a small group of four genera, including in all only about fifteen species. 
All of them are perennial marsh-plants of grass-like habit, with semi-cylindric or 
linear leaves, sheathing at the base and having the little axillary or intrapetiolar 
scales, resembling the “ ligules ” of grasses, which occur also in the Pond-weeds 
(Potamogeton). Some authorities consider these to be stipules, whilst others employ 
the ponderous non-committal term “ squamulae intravagi nales.” Their flowers are 
generally perfect, with a six-leaved perianth of calyx-like character in two whorls, six 
stamens, and three or six carpels, which may be distinct or united and are each either 
one- or two-seeded. 
The Arrow-grasses, the name of which genus is merely a translation of the 
scientific name Triglochin (from rpeis, treis , three ; yXoi^iV, glochin , an arrow-head), 
derive their name from the appearance of the fruit of this species, T. palustre L., as it 
splits when ripe. It was known to the early botanists as Gramen Triglochin , and in 
his “Theatrum Botanicum ” (1640) Parkinson writes of it : — 
“It hath sundry narrow slender leaves foure inches long, among which the stalke that hath no joynt or leafe thereon 
growcth a foot high, bearing many small three square heads in a long spike one above another, each on a severall short foot- 
stalke, fashioned somewhat like to a broad Arrow head, or the leafe of Sagirtaria, but that they are small and rounder, 
biforked below and sharpe pointed above, the root is a small bush of many small white fibres.” 
The fruit is, in fact, a schizocarp, not unlike that of Geranium, the dry valves of 
the three carpels separating at their bases and remaining attached to a central angular 
axis. Before bursting, the capsule is linear, whereas that of the allied species 
T. maritimum Linne is ovate ; and the latter has six fully developed carpels, whilst in 
T. palustre there. are only the rudiments of three chambers between the three that are 
fully formed. It is believed that the seeds are dispersed by animals, the sharp barbs 
of the fruit getting into the fur, or even piercing the skin. Sheep and cows are said 
to be fond of the salt flavour of the fleshy leaves. 
The flowers are wind-pollinated and protogynous, the stigmas reaching maturity 
two or three days before the anthers are ready to burst. As is usually the case with 
anemophilous flowers, the stigmas are brushes of rather long hairs. When the 
pollen is discharged it accumulates in the deeply hollowed perianth-leaves, one of 
which underlies each stamen, and is thus carried away in a considerable quantity by 
each gust of wind. The Marsh Arrow-grass flowers from June to August. 
The species has a wide latitudinal range in the Northern Hemisphere from 
Arctic regions to Northern Africa and North-western India. 
