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P O T A M O G E T O N denfutn,
Clofe-leaved Pond-weed.
t-fb
T E T R A N D R I A Tetragyma.
G en. C har. Cal. .none.. Petals 4 . Style none. Seeds 4.
Spec. Char. Leaves ovate, acuminated, oppofite,
crowded. Stem forked. Spike of 4 flowers.
S y n . P o tam o g e ton d en fum . Linn. Sp. P I. 18 2 . Hudf.
Fl.*An. 75. JVith. Bot. A r r . 173. Relh. Cant. 72.
Sibth. Ox. 65.
P. feu Pontinalis media lucens. Rail Syn. 14 9 .
N ot uncommon in ditches, ponds, and flow ilreams, flowering
in the early part of fummer.
It is perennial, propagating itfelf by runners which throw out
fibrous roots here and there into the mud, and fend up round
ftems, naked and Ample below, forked above, and thickly clothed
with numerous pairs of oppofite feflile fpreading leaves, both
rows of which often incline to one fide. Each leaf is ovate,
lengthened out into a point, ribbed, undulated, entire; we have
not found any ferratures or prickles on their margin, as fome
authors defcribe. Flower-ftalks from between the divifions of
the {tern (the uppermoft terminal, till young branches are protruded
beyond it), fhort, round, recurved, bearing a fhort fpike,
or rather a little head, of 2 or 4 flowers, well compared by Clu-
fius, and by Gerarde after him, to thofe of Adoxa; but it muft be
obferved that Johnfon, the profefied corrector of Gerarde, has
erroneoufly inferted a figure from Clufius of P. crifpum under the
fynonym of P. denfum. Every part of the flower is green.