196 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Elatine®. 
advancing 1 growth of the fruit, the latter thus at maturity one-celled. Seeds counted between 15 and 80 in 
Australian specimens, pale-brown or livid, shining, J line long, -when fewer in number a little larger in size. 
The proportion of length of petals and calyx and the shape of the columna, which in the specimens 
examined on this occasion could not be absolutely defined, may, according to the beautiful figures published 
by Dr. Seubert in his monograph, advantageously be drawn into the diagnoses. 
R. Brown (Gen. Remarks, p. 590) refers our species doubtfully to E. Hydropiper. From the closely 
allied E. triandra it seems merely to differ in not somewhat crenulated leaves and possibly in not having the 
sepals reduced to two, whilst the flower is otherwise also trimerous. 
Sect. II. Bergia. 
Rigidulous land-plants, often downy, almost confined to tropical and subtropical countries. 
Leaves herbaceous, usually denticulated. Flowers solitary in the axis of the leaves or cymose- 
glomerate or spuriously verticillate and bracteolate. Capsule bursting with septicidal dehiscence. 
Elatine tripetala. —Bergia tripetala, F. M. in Transact. Phil. Inst. Viet . ii. 66. 
Stems and branches procumbent, glandless-downy; stipules narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, incised- 
fimbriolate; leaves cliartaceous, glabrous, opposite, subsessile, lanceolate-ovate, flat, minutely and distantly 
serrulated; pedicels much shorter than the leaves; fiotvers trimerous , very small, spuriously verticillate, 
seldom tetramerous; segments of the calyx cymbiform-lanceolate, partially serrated; petals obovate; capsule 
3- rarely 4-celled; seeds ellipsoid-ovate ; testa clathrate. 
On shallow water-pools (clay-pans) subject to evaporation, near the confluence of the rivers Darling 
and Murray". 
A seemingly annual plant. Stems rigid, several from the root, distantly ramified, from a few to several 
inches long, clothed with crisp white articulate hair. Leaves 2-5 lines long, slightly acute, flat, on both 
pages equally glaucous-green. Stipules about 1 line long. Spurious verticils many-flowered. Pedicels as 
long as the flowers or shorter, glabrous. Calyx smooth; its segments about § line long, green at the back, 
white at the margin. Petals white or pink, about as long as the caly-x. Filaments linear-subulate, generally 
somewhat shorter than the ealyx. Anthers didymous. Stigmas 3, rarely 4, very short, club-shaped. Capsule 
about one-third longer than the caly-x; its septa very thin. Seeds ellipsoid- or renate-ovate, brown, shining, 
about ^ line long. 
This rare plant has as y r et not been found anywhere but in the locality" indicated. For fixture investi¬ 
gation it is left to ascertain, •whether besides erect growth and the glandular pubescence of the stems and 
branches any" other differential notes can be pointed out, by which the Indian B. trimera (Fisch. & Mey. in 
Linnrea, x. 74; B. ammannioides, Hook. Bo tan. Miscell. 93, suppl. tab. xxviii.; Wight, Illustrate of Ind. 
Bot. t. xxv.) could be specifically" distinguished, a question which cannot satisfactorily" be solved at present, 
the only small specimen of E. tripetala in our herbarium having been sacrificed in the analysis, which we 
owe to the skilful pencil of the late lamented Dr. Ludwig Becker. The specimens of the also closely allied 
E. ammannioides from Arnhem’s Land (conf. F. M. Fragm. Phyt. Austr. ii. 47) are all erect, the petals 
narrow-lanceolate, and the capsules mare deeply" impressed at the sutures. In transferring with other Bergi© 
also B. tripetala to Elatine, it is unnecessary to alter the specific name, although preoccupied by Sir Jumps 
Smith in the English Flora, ii. 243, since the British plant was previously described as E. hexandra by 
De Candolle in the Flore Frangaise, v. 609. 
Plate IX. 1, front view of flower; 2, back view of flower; 3, side view of a flower; 4, back view of a 
tetiamerous flower; 5, petal; 6 and 7, stamens; 8, pollen-grains; 9, seed; 10, longitudinal section of seed, 
showing the embryo; 11, stipules; 12, portion of a branch, exhibiting the articulate hair; 13, apex of leaf: 
all figures magnified in a lesser or greater degree. 
