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S A G I T T A R I A fagkdfolia.
Common Arrow-head.
M 0 N 0 E C I A P olyandria.
G en. Char. Male. Cal. three-leaved. Petals three.
Stamina nearly twenty-four. Female. Cal. threeleaved.
Petals three. Pijlilla many. Seeds many,
naked.
Spec. Char. Leaves arrow-fhaped, acute.
Syn. Sagittaria fagittifolia. L in n . Sp. PI. 1410. Hud/.
FI. An. 420. W ith . Bot. A r r . 1079. R e lh . Cant. 362.
Sagitta. R a il Syn. 258.
O NE of the moft beautiful ornaments of our rivers, pools,
and ditches throughout England is the Arrow-head. Its flowers
are fhort lived, the petals foon falling off; but there is a fuccef-
lion of them through the months of July and Auguft.
The root is perennial, confifting of a folid bulb or rather
tuber, deeply fixed in the mud. Stems and footftalks triangular,
very fpongy, by which they are fupported in the water in con-
fequence of the air generated within them; they difcharge a
white milky juice, an uncommon circumffance in aquatic plants.
The female flowers are few in number, and compofe one or
two of the lowermoft whorls on the flowering branch, the reft
being male. We have indeed obferved three or four piftilla in
fome of thefe male flowers; but whether they ever ripen is uncertain.
Thofe leaves which grow under water are linear, and the
plant varies much in fize; hence many varieties, and pretended
fpecies of old authors. See Dr. Stokes’s accurate defcription in
the Bot. Arr. above quoted.