t ]
BUT OMU S umbellatus.
Flowering Rujh.
ENNEANDRIA Hexagynia.
Gen. Char. Cal, none. Petals 6. Capfules 6, fupe-
rior, with many feeds.
Spec. Char. . . . .
Syn. Butomus umbellatus. Linn. Sp. P I. 5 3 2 . IJu df.
17 4 . With. 39 3 . Hull. 88. R ett. 164. Sibth. 134 .
Abbot. 9 1 . Curt. L ond .fa fc. 1. t. 29.
Butomus. R a il Syn. 2 7 3 .
T h e elegant Butomus, the only Britifh plant of the 9th
Clafs in the Linnsean Syftem, grows in ditches and the margins
of rivers and ponds, chiefly on a gravelly foil, flowering in
July. Like feveral other of our aquatics, it may be ranked
among the mod ornamental flowers.
The root is tuberous, horizontal and perennial. Lower part
of the herb entirely under water. Leaves all radical, ereft,
near three feet long, linear, entire, triangular, fmooth, pointed,
flat in the upper part. Stalk folitary, Ample, naked, round,
fmooth, taller than the leaves. Umbel terminal, Ample, of
many flowers, with brown {harp lanceolate bra&eae among its
flower-ftalks. Flowers large, varioufly {haded with rofe-colour,
purple and white, of fix fpreading elliptical petals, the three in-
nermoft fmaller than the reft. Stamina nine, fpreading, equal,
white, with red antherre. Germens flx, red, {landing in a
circle, with {hort recurved ftyles, and notched ftigmas.