194 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[. Elatine «. 
the calyx or nearly twice as long 1 , copiously veined, only under bright sunlight fully expanding, otherwise 
rolled in at the margin and collapsed, never black-dotted. Stamens varying in number from about 8-40. 
Filaments very tender, capillary, shorter than the corolla, free or slightly and irregularly connate. Anthers 
roundish, didymous, yellow, dorsifixed, line long, terminated with an exceedingly minute yellow gland. 
Pollen-grains ellipsoid, smooth, bursting lengthwise. Styles finely setaceous, yellow, divergent, but not 
curved, J-l line long. Stigma minute, depressed-globose. Capsule in some instances hardly longer than 
the calyx, in others approaching to twice the length. Valves thus 2-5 lines long, finally seceding to the 
base. Funicles extremely short. Seeds 1-4 line long, almost straight, vei-y blunt, with more prominent 
longitudinal streaks and finer transverse lines. 
It seems that the South African H. Lalandi is very nearly allied to our plant. H. humifusum, the 
British trailing St. John’s Wort, which has great resemblance to the dwarf forms of H. gramineum, maybe 
recognized by its more compressed stems, by blunt sepals, which as well as the leaves are somewhat black- 
dotted, and in rather larger almost black seeds. 
Order ELATINEiE. 
Cambessedes, in Mem. chi Museum d! Hist. Nat. xviii. 225. 
Elowers bisexual, symmetrical. Segments of tlie calyx 2-5, persistent, alternate 
with an usually equal number of petals; both imbricate in bud. Stamens definite , 
free. Filaments filiform. Anthers introrse, dorsifixed, two-celled; the cells turgid, 
bursting with a longitudinal fissure. Ovary 2-5-celled. Ovules many in each cell, 
affixed to the axillary placentae. Styles 2-5, free, short, persistent. Stigmas simple. 
Capsule 2-5-celled, opening by dehiscence or rupture of the septa; its central column 
placentiferous and persistent. Seeds many, often curved. Albumen none. Radicle 
longer than the cotyledons, next to the hilum. 
Herbs or rarely suffruticose plants, dispersed in a scanty number of species over 
all parts of the globe except the arctic regions, generally growing in water or occa¬ 
sionally inundated places. Leaves stipulate , opposite or rarely verticillate, simple. 
Elowers small, axillary, solitary or glomerate-cymose. Petals usually white or pink. 
Midi. Gen. 1033; Seubert, in Walp. Repert. Botan. Syst. i. 283, and in Nov. Act. 
Academ. Cces. Leop. Carol. Natur. Cur. xxi. i. 35-37 ; Payer, Organog. compar. 369- 
370, t. 109, figs. 1-10. 
If the genus Tetradiclis is referable to this order then the limitation of Elatine®, 
as adopted here, null have to undergo considerable expansion. 
This order is evidently very closely allied to Hypericinecc, a relationship con¬ 
firmed by the very great resemblance of the seeds of Elatine with those of Hypericum. 
Erom Caryophyllese they are much more distinct. Australia, as far as known, possesses 
six species of Elatine, four tropical and one extratropical species belonging to the 
section Bergia, and one extratropical and subtropical species belonging to the original 
genus of Elatine. 
