s [ 763 ]
HIPPURIS vulgaris.
Mare's-tail.
MONAND RIA Monogynia:
G en. C har. Cal. obfolete, undivided. Cor. none.
Stigma Ample. Seed i , inferior.
Spe c. C har. Leaves whorled, linear.
S yn. Hippuris vulgaris. Linn. Sp. P i. 6. Sm. L I.
Brit. 4. Hudf. 1 . With. 5. Hull. 2. lle lh . I .
Sihth. 1. Abbot. 1. Curt. Lond. fa fc. 4 . t. 1.
Dick/. H . Sicc. fa fc. 2. 1.
Limnopeuc'e. Rail Syn. 136.
I n ditches, pools, and the borders of flow ftreams this plant
may he feen in the months of May and June, riling to the
height of 10 or 12 inches ftraight above the furface of the water,
and flowering abundantly. Afterwards its whorled perennial
roots, and leafy procumbent branches, only are to be found in
the mud at the bottom. It is not indeed a very common plant,
but grows in feveral parts of Norfolk and about London, feem-
ing to prefer a gravelly foil.
Stem perfectly Ample, round, fmooth, reddilh, fet with
numerous whorls of linear entire fmooth leaves, about 8 or 10
in each whorl. Flowers feflile, one in the bofom of each leaf,
fmall, and of the flmpleft ftrufture; for they conflft of only
an oval germen, crowned with an almoft imperceptible
margin or calyx, without a corolla, and terminating in a
Ample, thread-fhaped, pointed ftyle, by whofe Ade Hands one
Ample ftamen with a two-lobed anthera. When young this
anthera is large and reddilh, Atting clofe to the germen, as
reprefented in our plate. The germen becomes a Angle naked
feed.
The herb in its winter Hate, immerfed in the water, with
longer, thick-fet, pellucid leaves, has been defcribed by Dille-
nius in Ray’s Synopfs as a remarkable variety; but it depends
entirely on the time of the year, and is therefore not to be
deemed a variety.