4 °\ [ 1 9 8 5 ]
POTAMOGETON lanceolatum.
Lanceolate Pondzveed.
TETRANDRIA Tetragynla.
G e n . C h a r . Cal. none. Petals 4 . Style none. Seeds 4.
S p e c . C h a r . L eave s lanceolate, membranous, entire,
tapering at the base. S p ik e o vate, dense, o f few
flowers.
S y n . Potamoge ton ramosum angus tifolium. Bauh.
P in . 1 9 3 . Prod. 10 1 ?
T h IS Potamogeton was communicated by the Rev. H. Davies
from the lakes of North Wales, flowering in August.
The stems are floating, very slender, round, branched, with
creeping perennial roots. Leaves an inch and half or 2 inches
long, uniform, lanceolate', bluntish, entire, flat, thin, with 1
rib and several reticulated veins, tapering at the base. They
are alternate except where the flowers are situated. Stipulas
narrow, lanceolate, acute. Flower-stalks solitary, from the
bosom of 1 stipula of the opposite leaves, nearly as long as the
corresponding leaf, cylindrical, equal. Spike short and ovate,
obtuse, dense, uninterrupted, of 8, 10 or 12 small flowers.
The colour of the whole plant is either dark green or brownish.
We dare not positively quote any synonym for the above
plant, yet we are not without suspicion that those of Bauhin
applied to P . setaceum may possibly belong to it. Can it be
the setaceum of Hudson or Linnaeus ? Their specific character,
whatever we may think of the name, is not altogether
adverse. No one knows this setaceum. Botanists copy its
barren definition from each other, but scarcely any appears to
have examined it. Being like others in total ignorance, I
have merely hazarded a presumption in FI. Bril, that its
« leaves are s e ta c e o u swhich word perhaps may only apply
to their points, or to the stems, flower-stalks, or stipulas. In
this uncertainty we can but offer conjectures to be confirmed
or refuted by future inquiries, and in the mean while we have
«riven our plant a name which is free from all ambiguity.