Dioecia. 
( 33 ) 
S P I R A L V A L L I S N E R I A. 
I Had Occafion to mention, in the laftPage, thofe Vegetables which have the 
Male and Female Flower, not only diftin^l; in themfelves, but placed upon 
feparate Plants. This Vallifneria is an Inftance ; nor is it poffible for Nature 
to produce one more wonderful. The Flowers of the two Sexes are not only 
diftin(T ,but they are unlike to one another ; nor is any Thing fo ftrange as the 
Method purfu’d by Nature to bring them together, for the Propagation of 
the Plant : the male Flowers growing under Water at a great Depth, and up- 
on Ihort Footftalks ; the Female having very long and wonderful ones, and 
floating on the Surface. 
The whole Account, as given by accurate Writers, feems yet fcarce credit 
ble ; and Linn^us laments that he has not feen the Flowers. I obtain’d the 
Specimen from which this Drawing is made from Itaty, by the Favour of Mr. 
Bromfield, the Princes’s Surgeonj whofe Intereft there procur’d me the per- 
fect Plant and all its Parts. 
It takes Root always at the Bottoms of Ditches of three or four Feet deep ; 
and whether the Plant be Male or Female, cannot be known till the Time of 
flowering : the Root and Leaves being perfeflly alike in both. The Root is fi- 
brous, and the Leaves are very long and narrow ; their Colour is a frefh Green, 
and they play about varioufly with the Courfe of the Water. 
At the flowering Seafon, the Male and Female fhoot up their Stalks toge- 
ther. The male Stem is moft inconfiderable, ’tis very Ihort, and has a Spike 
of little Flowers, whitilh and cut into three Parts, and in the Centre of each of 
thefe are two Ihort Filaments, crown’d with Buttons. 
The female Plant fends up its Stalk even to the Surface of the Water : and 
by a peculiar Mechanifiu, always lays the Flower which terminates it, flat up- 
on that Surface; open to the Air. The Mechanifm is this ; the Stalk is twifted 
in a fpiral Form ; and while the Flower is but in Bud, the feveral Convolutions 
are apply’d clofe together ; fo that it is very Ihort. When the Flower is ready 
to open, the fpiral Coil unwinds itfelf, and the burfliing Bud is laid upon the Sur- 
face : there the Sun w'arms it, and the Flower is open’d perfectly. If the Wa- 
ter be within the Influence of Tides, or by any other Accident is at Times 
deeper and Ihallower, the fpiral Form of the Stalk winds or unwinds itfelf jult 
as much as is necefiary to keep the Flower upon the level Top of the Water. 
This is needful for the Impregnation of the Seeds; which is indeed perform’d in 
a Manner altogether wonderful. 
When the male Flowers are ready to burft, they feparate of themfelves from 
the Stalk ; and being light they rife to the Surface of the Water : there they 
float loofe ; and there the female Flower lies upon the fame Level ready to re- 
ceive the Dull from their Buttons. As the Winds, or Current throw the male 
'Flowers about, fome of them get at the Female, and thus the Seed-veflTel which 
follows that Flower is impregnated. 
Nothing in Nature is more ftrange than this Produ<£Iion of two Kinds of 
Plants, fo far as the Flowers are concern’d from the fame Seed; for the male 
Vallifneria rifes from the Seed of the female Plant as well as the Female; and 
fo it is throughout this Clafsv 
C R I M- 
Vallifneria. Linn. 
Vallifneria et Vallifnerioides Micheli. 
