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M Y R I O P H Y L L U M fpicatum.
Spiked Water- MillfoiL
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M 0 N O E C I A Polyandria•
G en. Char. Male. Cal. four-leaved. Petals four.
Stamina eight. Female. Cal. four-leaved. Petals
four. Piftilla four. Style none. Seeds four, naked.
Spec. Char. Male flowers in interrupted naked
fpikes.
S y n . Myriophyllum fpicatum. Linn. Sp. PI. 1409.
HudJ. FI. An. 419. With. Bot. Jrr. 1077. Relb.
Cant. 361.
Potamogiton foliis pennatis. Rail Syn. 150.
FN O T uncommon in ditches and ftagnant pools, flowering
in July and Auguft, when its numerous red fpikes, Handing
eredt above the furface, render it very confpicuous. This fpe-
cimen came from the peninfula called the Ifle of Dogs, facing
Greenwich Hofpital. S
The roots are laid to be perennial •, they are long and flender.
The Hems are alfo very flender in their lower part, round and
much branched upwards. Leaves in fours, fpreading, very finely
pe&inated, always immerfed in the water. The flowers only
rife above the water, that their pollen may not be deftroyed by
it. Notwithlhmding Vaillant in the year 1719 defcribed this
genus as having a corolla, Linnaeus always perfilted in denying
its exiftence; and our own writers have copied him without
any alteration. Yet it is certain we have found four very evident
red petals, equal to the ftamina and piftillum, and more
than twice as long as the calyx. It is no lefs true that even
the fpecimens of M. verticillatum, though not thofe of M.
fpicatum in the Linnaean Herbarium, have petals, at leaft in the
male flowers. T o account for this contrariety of defcription,
we mull fuppofe that the corolla of thefe plants is either very
caducous, or frequently wanting, an accident well known to
happen in many other vegetables. In our plant the calyx is
acute and finely ciliated; the petals obtufe, concave ant! entire.