/yi [ 75f ]
HYDROCOT Y L E vulgaris.
M arjh P en n y -w o rt. W hite-ro t.
P ENT ANDR1A Digynia.
G e n . C h a r . Umbel fimple. Involucrum o f about 4
leaves. Petals un divid ed. Fruit circular, com-
p refled.
S p e c . C h a r . Leaves peltate. Umbels of five flowers.
S y n . Hydrocotyle vulgaris. Linn. Sp. PI. 338. Sm.
FI. Brit. 290. Hudf. n o . With. 284. H u ll.fi.
Relh. 107. Sibth. 91. Abbot. 57. Curt. Lond.
fafc. 6. t. 19. Raii Syn. 1 1 1 .
O n boggy commons, moift heaths, and all watery places in
general that are not ftagnant, the Hydrocotyle vulgaris abounds,
and may be found in flower from May to the end of June. The
herb is perennial, and the proftrate items fpread very far, taking
root at every joint, and alfo producing from the fame point
feveral upright, fimple, fmooth or hairy, footftalks, each of
which fupports a horizontal, peltate, roundifh, crenate, fmooth
and Ihining leaf, as well as one or more flower-ftalks not fo
high as the leaves, having a pair of braftese at their bafe, and
bearing an umbel of 5 flowers, which is often proliferous, producing
another fuch umbel from its centre; but the partial
ftalks are never branched or compounded like thofe of mod
umbelliferous plants ; indeed they are fo fliort as to be fcarcely
difcernible. Involucrum of 4 or 5 membranous leaves. Calyx
very minute. Petals ovate, fpreading, undivided, white or
reddifli. Fruit orbicular, furrowed, comprefled.
The name of White-rot was given from a fuppofition that
this plant caufed the difeafe in flieep called the rot; but it is
doubtful if they will ever tafte it, and moft people now attribute
that difeafe to the animals inhabiting wet paftures, where
indeed the Hydrocotyle grows, but which "are in fome other way
noxious to their conftitution.