MYRIOPHYLLUM alterniflorum.
Alternate-flowered Water-Milfoil.
MONQiCIA Polyandria.
Gen. Char. Barren FI. Calyx 4-partite. Petals
4. Stamens 8. Fertile FI. Calyx 4-fid ; tube
tetragonal, adhering1 to the germen. Petals 4,
minute. Stigmas 4, sessile. Nuts 4, sessile,
1-seeded.
Spec. Char. Sterile flowers alternate, about 6, in a
leafless spike. Spike nodding when in bud,
afterwards erect. Fertile flowers in axillary
whorls of about 3 flowers, at the base of the
spike.
Syn. Myriophyllum alterniflorum. DeCand. FI. Fr.
Suppl. 529. Bot. Gall. 190. Beich. FI. Excurs.
633. Koch. Syn. 244. Loisel. FI. Gall. v. 2.
322. Drej. FI. Hafn. 303. Beich. FI. Exsic.
iVo. 774 ! Bab. Prim. FI. Sam. 36. Leight.
FI. Shrops. 4 7 1.
J-^HE subject of the- present plate has doubtless been
often overlooked as a small form of M. spicatum, a plant to
which it certainly bears a great resemblance, but from which
it is clearly distinguishable when submitted to examination.
In that species the young spikes, before the flowers open,
are erect, in the present they are nodding ; in that the male
flowers are whorled, here they are alternate ; there the
lower whorls of female flowers are subtended by small serrate
bracteas, which are scarcely longer than the flowers;
in this the same whorls are placed in the axils of the upper
leaves, which, although smaller than the other leaves, are
yet much longer than the flowers, and deeply pectinated.