2606
C A L L I T R I C H E autumnalis.
Autumnal Water-starwort.
MONANDRIA Digynia.
(rather MONCECIA MONANDRIA.)
Gen. Char. Cal. none. Petals 2, inferior. Seeds 4,
naked, compressed. Some flowers separated.
—Sm.
Spec. Char. Leaves all submerged, linear, retuse,
single-ribbed, compactly cellular : petals none.
Syn. Callitriche autumnalis. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 6.
Willd. Sp. PL v. 1. p. 29. Wahl. Lapp. p. 2.
Sm. Engl. FI. v. 1. p. 10.
C. aquatica y. Sm. FI. Brit. v. 1. p. 9. Engl. Bot.
t. 722. Hook. Scot. l .p. 259.
W H E T H E R there be two distinct species of Callitriche
in this country or not, we will not take upon us to
say. It is very certain that the early-flowering kind, with
its broad, floating, 3-nerved leaves, is very different in appearance
from that which comes to perfection at a later
period of the year. The former, now called C. verna, is
admirably figured at t..722 of this work. The latter, C. autumnalis,
we now propose to illustrate, a small portion
of it only having been represented on the same plate with
C. verna, t. 722.
In this we find the same general habit and mode of growth
as in C. verna, and the same disposition to vary in regard
to size. The leaves are all of them sessile^ linear^ of a dark,
green colour? opaque? with a central rib and a texture
formed of cells so minute and compact that they are
scarcely visible with a good microscope i the extremities
are obtuse or5 more generally^ retuse? and even emarginate.
The single nerve or rib5 we should observe^ exists equally
in the lower and linear leaves of C. verna. In C. autum