280 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
to have any fixed locality. The floating plants have, however, risen from a parent plant, which, being rooted in 
the mud at the bottom, has sent forth long runners, each when it has risen to the surface becoming detached, and 
sending out flowers and roots. As soon as the plant has flowered it sinks to the bottom, and either ripens its 
seeds, or produces a number of off-sets, as its parent plant had done before it. The male and female flowers are 
occasionally on different plants. 
GENUS II. 
THE FROG-BIT. (Hydrocharis, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. DICECIA ENNEANDRIA. 
Generic Character. —Dioecious. Male. Spathe two-parted, tliree- 
fiowered. Perianthium of six pieces. Stamens twelve, or by abortion 
nine, placed in a triple order upon the rudiments of an abortive ovary. 
Female. Spathe sessile, one-flowered. Perianthium like that of the 
male, with six filiform abortive stamens. Stigmas six, wedge-shaped, 
bifid. Fruit leathery, six-celled, many-seeded. ( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —There is only one species in this genus. The name of Hydrocharis signifies Grace of 
the Water, and is therefore well applied to this very pretty plant. The genus is placed in the Linnaean class 
Dicecia, from its male and female flowers being distinct and on different plants ; and in the order Enneandria, 
from the stamens being generally nine. 
1.—THE COMMON FROG-BIT. (Hydrocharis Morsus Ran^e, Lin.) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 808 ; 2nd ed., t. 1398 ; and our Jig. 4, in PI. 53. 
Specific Character. —The same as the generic character, there being only one known species. 
Description, &c. —This plant differs from most other aquatics, in the whole plant floating on the surface 
of the water, and sending down its long fibrous roots perpendicularly to the mud below ; instead of the plant 
growing in the mud, and having a long stem rising to the surface of the water. The species is common in ponds 
and ditches in every part of England and Ireland. The flowers, which appear in July, are large and handsome, 
but do not last long. The leaves are purplish and dotted on the under surface, and the whole plant is decidedly 
ornamental. It is a perennial, and flowers in July. 
CHAPTER LXXIII. 
THE IRIS FAMILY. (Iride.e, Juss.) 
Character of the Order. —Perianthium superior; petaloid, in six 
parts, sometimes irregular, deciduous ; the three petals occasionally 
abortive. Stamens three, inserted in the sepals ; filaments distinct or 
connate; anthers turned outwards. Ovarium three-celled, many- 
seeded ; style one or three, united at the base, and petaloid ; stigmas 
either simple or three-lobed. Capsulo three-celled, three-valved, with 
a loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds attached to the axis of the fruit; 
albumen horny or densely fleshy; embryo included, undivided. 
Herbaceous plants, very seldom under-shrubs. Roots tuberous or 
fibrous. Leaves equidistant, distichous. Bracteie usually spathaceous. 
Flowers brightly-coloured. {Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —The three "genera belonging to this order all contain ornamental plants, and most of 
them have tuberous or fleshy roots. 
