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SUBULARIA aquatica.
Aw l-wo rt.
TE TRAD Y N AMI A Siliculoja.
Gen. Chau. Pouch entire, ellip tic a l: valves elliptical,
concave, contrary to the partition. Style thorter
than the pouch.
Spec. Ch a r ...........
Syn. Subularia aquatica. Linn. Sp. PI. 896. Sm. FI.
Brit. 676. Hudf. 277. With. 564. Hull. 143.
Light/. 337. Dick/. H. Sicc. fafc. 5. 9.
S. eredta, ju n c i foliis acutis mollibus. RaiiSyn. 307.
T l 3 . . A HIS little plant, however unoftentatious 111 appearance, is
no lefs remarkable for its fituation, and mode of flowering under
water, than for the peculiarity of its generic character. She-
rard firft found it in the gravelly bottom of an alpine lake in
Ireland. Our fpecimen was gathered in Scotland by Mr.
Mackay. It flowers in July, and lafts but one year.
The root confifts of many long Ample white fibres. Leaves
all radical, awl-fhaped (whence the name), with a recurved
point. Stalk feldom more than 2 inches high, Ample, fmooth,
bearing a Ample fpike of fmall white flowers, always immerfed
in the water, and fo clofed that the impregnation is accompliffied
in fafety under the protection of the calyx and petals; other-
wife the pollen would be fpoiled before it could perform its office.
By the firft appearance of the flower and feed-veflel one would
readily take it for a Draba, fee t. 386 ; but on examination
an eflential difference is found in the partition being contrary
to the valves, not parallel with them, and yet thofe valves are
not keeled as in Lepidium, only concave; neither is the pouch
notched as in that genus.