2670
EL A T IN E Hydropiper.
Four-petaled Waterwort.
OCTANDRIA Tetragynia.
Gen. Char. Calyx 3—4-partite, persistent, inferior.
Petals 3—4. Stamens 3, or 6, or 8. Styles 3 or 4,
very short. Capsule 3—4-valved, 3—4-celled,
many-seeded, the dissepiments alternate with the
valves. Seeds cylindrical, curved, furrowed and
transversely striated, attached to a central receptacle.
Spec. Char. Flowers pedicellate or nearly sessile,
8-androus, calyx shorter than the petals, its segments
ligulate, capsule roundish, slightly depressed,
convex at the top, 4-celled, seeds bent
almost double, chalaza operculiform.
a. flowers distinctly pedicellate.
Syn. Elatine Hydropiper. Linn. Sp.Pl. 527. (not Eng.
Bot.) mild. Sp. PI. V. 2.472 (a). Schkuhr, Bot.
Handb. t. 109. (copied from Vaillant). DeCand.
Ic. Plant, t. 43. f . 2. Reichenb. Iconogr. Bot.
cent. 5. 8. Spreng. Syst. Veget. v. 2. 261. DeCand.
8g Duby, Bot. Gall. t>. 1. 81.
Alsinastrum serpillifolium, flore albo tetrapetalo.
Vaill. Bot. Par. t. 2. f . 2.
pt flowers nearly sessile (Tab. nostr.)
Syn. Elatine Hydropiper. (Ed. FI. Dan. t. 156.
Schkuhr, Bot. Handb. 1.109. b. Reichenb. Icon.
Bot. cent. 5.8. (var. Schkuhriana.)
JL HE only species of Elatine hitherto known to be indigenous,
has already appeared at t. 955 of this work as the
E. Hydropiper of Linnaeus. This is now ascertained by