CALLITRICHE platycarpa.
Broad-fruited Water-Starwort.
MONCECIA Monandria.
Gen. Char. Calyx none, or rudimentary. Corolla
none. Bracteas 2, opposite, petaloid. Styles 2.
Fruit of 4 laterally compressed, indehiscent, 1-
seeded carpels.
Spec. Char. Peduncles of the fruit wanting, or very
short. Fruit tetragonal; carpels parallel, slightly
winged at the back. Styles at first erect, afterwards
reflexed over the fruit. Bracteas converging.
Syn. Callitriche platycarpa. Kiitz. in Reich. Icon,
t. 883. Reich. FI. Excurs. 754. Koch Syn. 245.
Bab. Prim. FI. Sam.36. Lcigkt. FI. Shrop. 446.
C. pedunculata, var. spathulata. Bab. in Mag.
Zool. and Bot. v. 1. 137.
I t will probably be found that this little aquatic plant is
amongst the more common natives of England ; for since
my attention has been drawn to it, I have observed it in
Cambridgeshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Leicestershire,
Norfolk and Caernarvonshire, and in Mayo and other parts
of Ireland. Mr. Leighton has sent it from Shropshire ; it
occurs in Jersey, Hampshire and Sussex, and has been
found as far north as the Long Island, Outer Hebrides.
The whole herb mostly floating or creeping upon mud,
and with nearly all its leaves of the same size and form.
Stems much branched, producing several fibrous roots
from nearly every joint. Leaves ovate or nearly orbicular,
obtuse or truncate, scarcely emarrginate, tapering below
into a short, broad, and foliaceous petiole, 3-nerved,
the lower ones if under water somewhat lengthened. Bracteas
2, persistent, lanceolate, acute, converging, about £rd
of the length of the filament of the reniform, 1-celled anther,
and half as long as the ripe fruit, Styles 2, capillary, erect