Volume 5 — PLATE CCCXXXIII.

SAGITTARIA LANCIFOLIA.

Lance-leaved Arrowhead.

CLASS XXI. ORDER VII.

MONŒCIA POLYANDRIA. Chives and Pointals separate. Many Chives.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

* Masculi flores plures.

Calyx. Perianthium triphyllum; foliolis ovatis, concavis, persistentibus.

Corolla. Petala tria, subrotunda, obtusa, plana, patientia, calyci triplo majora.

Stamina. Filamenta plurima (viginti quatuor sæpe), subulata, in capitulum congesta. Antheræ erectæ, longitudine calycis.

* Feminei flores pauciores, infra masculos.

Calyx. Perianthium ut in mare.

Corolla. Petala tria, ut in mare.

Pistilla. Germina numerosa, compressa, in capitulum congesta, extrorsum gibba, desinentia in stylos brevissimos. Stigmata acuta, persistentia.

Pericarpium nullum. Receptaculum globosum, semina in globum colligens.

Semina numerosa, oblonga, compressa, cincta longitudinaliter margine membranaceo, lato, hinc gibbo, utrinque acuminato.

* Male flowers many.

Empalement. Cup three leaves; leaflets egg-shaped, concave, remaining.

Blossom. Three petals, roundish, blunt, flat, spreading, three times the size of the cup.

Chives. Threads many (often twenty-four), awl-shaped, collected into a little head. Tips upright, the length of the cup.

* Female flowers fewer, beneath the males.

Empalement. Cup as in the male.

Blossom. Three petals, as in the male.

Pointals. Seed-buds numerous, flattened, forming a little head, hunched on the outerside, ending in very short shafts. Summits pointed, remaining.

Seed-vessel none. Receptacle globular, supporting the seeds in the form of a globe.

Seeds numerous, oblong, flattened, surrounded lengthways by a broad skinny border, hunched on one side, tapering to each end.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Sagittaria foliis lanceolato-ovatis.

Arrowhead with leaves between lance and egg-shaped.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

All the species of this Genus of plants are aquatic, or water plants, and differ but little from each other, in their specific characters. Our present subject is a native of the West India Islands, and requires the atmosphere of a hot-house to induce it to flower. The blossoms, on the lower part of the flower-stem, are all females; and those on the upper part, males; they are all exceedingly delicate, as either wind, or wet, destroys them. It increases by offsets from the root; but the seeds do not ripen in this country. It must be kept in a pan or tub half filled with earth, and the other half with water, but does not require to be plunged in the tan-bed.

Our figure was taken from a plant which flowered this year 1803 (and, for the first time in Britain, as we are informed by Mr. Anderson), in the month of July, in the Collection of J. Vere, Esq. Kensington Gore.