Matinees,] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
195 
ELATINE. 
Linn, Gen, Plant, 502.—Waterwort. 
Segments of the calyx 2-5. Petals 2-5, short unguiculate. Stamens either as many as the 
petals and alternate with them or twice as many and the inner ones opposite to the petals. Styles 
2-5. Capsule nearly globose ; its dissepiments formed by the introflexed valves, meeting in the axis. 
Seeds usually cylindrical, truncate at one extremity, rounded-blunt at the other, rarely ellipsoid. 
Testa clathrate or very seldom smooth. 
A cosmopolitan genus of small and insignificant usually annual plants, lax and succulent when 
growing in water, more hard and rigid when growing in dry localities. Leaves usually flat, entire or 
toothed. Flowers sessile or short-stalked, seldom on long pedicels.— Fischer & Meyer , in Linncea, x. 
69; Wight & Arnott, Prodr, Flor. Penins. Ind, Orient, i. 41. 
Sect. I. Hyduopiper. 
Glabrous lax water-plants, almost confined to extratropical countries. Leaves membranous, 
entire. Flowers ebracteolate, always solitary in the axils of the leaves. Capsule bursting with septi- 
fragal dehiscence. 
Elatine minima, Fischer Meyer, in Bullet . de la Soc. Imper. des Natur, de Mosc. and in Lin- 
nesa, x. 69 ; Seubert , in Nov. Act. Acad. Ccesar. Leop. Carol, Cur, Natur. xxi. 41, t. 2, Jigs. 9 & 10; E. 
Americana, Arnott, in Edinb. Journ.for Nat. and Geogr. Sciences, i. 430; Gray fy Sprag. Gen. Flor. Amer. 
Bor. Illustr. t. 95; Torrey, Flora of New York, i. 91; J. Hook. Flor. Nov. Zeel. i. 27 ; Flor. Tasm. i. 4 7 ; 
E. gratioloides, All. Cunn. in Annal. Nat. Hist. iv. 26; Peplis Americana, Pursh. Flor. Amer. Septentr. i. 
238; Crypta minima, Nutt, in Journ. Acad. Pkilad. i. 117, t. Q,f 1. 
Glabrous; stipules deltoid, denticulated; leaves membranous, opposite, subsessile, entire, flat, spathu- 
late- or oblong- or orbicular-obovate, rarely linear-oblong or elongate-lanceolate; flowers sessile, alternate, 
very small; segments of the calyx oval, entire, as -well as the roundish petals, the stamens, styles and valves 
of the capsule 2-4; dissepiments of the capsule evanescent; seeds slightly curved, cylindrical; testa clathrate. 
On muddy places and on the margins of still fresh waters, sparingly distributed over our colony; 
extending over the greater part of extratropical Australia, having been found by the author of this work as 
far north as Moreton Bay and Lake Torrens, and by Mr. A. Oldfield on the Murchison River; found also in 
New Zealand and Tasmania and in North America, probably hitherto overlooked in other parts of the globe. 
Stems cylindrical, lax, fistulose, procumbent or ascendent or when submersed erect, attaining the length 
of 8 inches, usually but a few inches long, sometimes exceedingly short, arising from a creeping rhizome, 
radicant with long capillary fibres at the lower nodes. Stipules about h line long, almost delta-shaped, 
membranous, slightly toothed. Leaves usually a few fines long and rounded-blunt, in some instances fully 
1 inch long, and more tapering to a retuse apex, varying in breadth from |-3 fines, distantly and tenderly 
penninerved and veined. Flowers very minute, alternate. Sepals greenish. Petals pink, extremely tender 
and evanescent, usually three in Australian specimens, but sometimes reduced to two according to observa¬ 
tions instituted by American botanists, whilst the isomeral symmetry of the flower then would necessitate 
the formation of the same number of stamens, stigmas, cells of ovary and valves of capside, although not 
invariably the same number of divisions of the calyx. Stamens short, opposite to the lobes of the calyx, the 
stigmas and the valves of the fruit. Anthers and stigmas very minute. Pollen-grains ellipsoid, smooth, 
bursting lengthwise. Capsule 1fine in diameter, round, very depressed on the vertex, oftenei 3- than 
4-valved; the valves readily separable and tender-membranous; the septa more or less destroyed during the 
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