[ I 0 95 ]
L E M N A minor.
Defier Duck-weed.
MONOEClA Diandria.
G en. C har. Male, Cal. of i leaf. Cor. none.
Female, Cal. of i leaf. Cor. none. Style x. Capf.
with feveral feeds.
S pe c . C har, Leaves feffile, nearly flat on both fides.
Roots folitary.
S y n . Lemna minor. Linn. Sp. PI. 1376. Sm. FI.
Brit. 957. Hitdf. 399. With. 44. Hull. 202.
Relh. 359. Sibih. 14. Abbot. 198.
Lens paluftris. Rail Syn. 129. t. 4. ƒ . x.
. A n o t h e r Lemna in fructification (fee L . trifulca, v. 13,
t. 936) has been fortunately communicated to us by Mr. W .
Borrer. This fpecies is very common in ftagnant pools,
floating on the furface; but its flowers, though defcribed by
fome foreign writers, have not till now been noticed in Britain.
They are produced in the middle of fummer, after which
feafon the plant decays, and as it is acknowledged to be an
annual, they mull be conftantly produced; unlefs the herb
may be propagated by fragments of itfelf finking to the
bottom of the water, rooting in the mud, and in due time
forming leaves, which become buoyant by means of the
air generated in their cells. However this may be, we are
perfuaded the long folitary, fibrous roots, tipped with a fheath
as in other fpecies, are of temporary ufe, and do not them-
felves form offsets.
The leaves are elliptical, and fomewhat proliferous as in
L . trifulca, but much fmaller and more fucculent, entire at
their margin, flightly convex beneath, of a pale green in every
part. Flowers from a marginal chink, always, as it appears
to us, hermaphrodite, and having a two-valved calyx (or perhaps
corolla) much more evident than in L. trifulca ; fo that
probably the generic chara&er may hereafter be altered with
advantage if the remaining fpecies agree with this.