C.Mathews. Del. &Sc.

Pub by W Baxter Botanic Garden Oxford 1536

HYDROCO/TYLE*,

Linnean Class and Order. PENTA'NDRIA†, DIGY'NIA.

Natural Order. UMBELLI FERE, Juss. Gen. Plant. p. 218.Sm. Gram. of Bot. p. 132.-Lindl. Syn. p. 111.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. p. 4.-Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 463.-Loud. Hort. Brit. p. 517.-UMBELLATÆ, Linn.-ROSALES; subord. ANGELICOSÆ; sect. ANGELICINE; type, ANGELICACEE; subtype, SANICULIDE; Burn. Outl. of Bot. pp. 614, 762, 770, 773, & 774.

GEN. CHAR. Umbels simple or imperfect. Flowers (fig. 1.) all perfect, prolific, and regular. Calyx none. Corolla (fig. 1.) of 5, equal, egg-shaped, entire, acute, spreading petals, with a straight point. Filaments (see fig. 1.) 5, awl-shaped, spreading, shorter than the corolla. Anthers roundish. Germen nearly round, compressed, ribbed, smooth. Styles (see figs. 1 & 2.) 2, cylindrical, moderately spreading, tumid at the base, shorter than the stamens, permanent. Stigmas simple. Fruit (fig. 2.) nearly round, compressed at the side, so as to form 2 little shields. Carpels (seeds of SMITH, (fig. 3.), with 5 filiform ridges, those of the keel and sides nearly obsolete, the intermediate arched, without vitta. Seed (fig. 5.) compressed and keeled.

The simple umbel; equal, entire, flat petals, not inflexed at the point; and the solid, laterally compressed, striated fruit; will distinguish this from other genera in the same class and order.

One species British.

HYDROCOTYLE VULGA'RIS. Common Water-cup. Whiterot. Marsh Penny-wort.

SPEC. CHAR. Leaves peltate, orbicular, somewhat lobed and crenate. Umbels very small, of from 5 to 8, nearly sessile flowers.

p.

Engl. Bot. t. 751.-Curt. Fl. Lond. t. -Ray's Syn. p. 222.-Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 338.-Huds. Fl. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 110.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. i. p. 290. Engl. Fl. v. ii. p. 96.—With. (7th ed.) v. ii. p. 362.-Lindl. Syn. p. 128.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 136.-Lightf. Fl. Scot. v. i. p. 153.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 91.-Abbot's Fl. Bed. 57.-Purt. Midl. Fl. v. i. p. 153.-Relh. Fl. Cantab. (3rd ed.) p. 109.Davies' Welsh Bot. p. 27.-Hook. Fl. Scot. p. 87.-Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 61.-FI. Devon. pp. 47 & 165.-Johnst. Fl. of Berw. v. i. p. 71.-Walk. Fl. of Oxf. p. 84.-Curt. Brit. Ent. v. iii. t. 142.-Perry's Plantæ Varvic. Selectæ, p. 25.— Mack. Catal. of Pl. of Irel. p. 27.-Hydrocótyle vulgáre, Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 507.-Cotylédon palustris, Johnson's Gerarde, pp. 529 & 530.

LOCALITIES.-On moist heaths, boggy commons, and the margins of little clear rivulets, very frequent.

Fig. 1. A separate Flower, showing the Petals, Stamens, Germen, and Pistils. Fig. 2. The Fruit, crowned with the permanent pistils. Fig. 3. The Carpels.-Fig. 4. A Carpel divided horizontally.-Fig. 5. A Seed.-All more or less magnified.

* From udor, Gr. water; and cotule, Gr. a cup or vase. The leaves are a little depressed, and stalked in the centre, and may thence somewhat resemble a cup or platter. HOOKER.

Seventeen exotic species of Hydrocotyle are enumerated in LOUDON's Hortus Britannicus.

+ See Anchusa sempervirens, folio 48, note †.

Perennial.-Flowers from June to September.

Root fibrous. Stems creeping, thread-shaped, slender, smooth, quite prostrate, often subdivided, rooting at each joint, and producing from the same point a tuft of leaves and flowers. Leaves horizontal, nearly round, about an inch in diameter, doubly crenate, smooth, glossy, light green, the centre a little depressed, and marked with a whitish dot, from which the veins radiate, and form a kind of net-work on both surfaces. Petioles (leaf-stalks) solitary or aggregate, from 2 to 4 inches or more long, upright, cylindrical, slender, simple from the base. Peduncles (flower-stalks) axillary, one or more accompanying each group of leaves, shorter than the petioles, with a pair of broad bracteas at the base. Umbel very small, its rays so short as to be scarcely observable, usually about 5, with 3 or 4 thin spear-shaped bracteas at their base. Flowers small, reddish white, or rose-colour. Fruit of a pale brown colour, striated, and compressed laterally, that is, contrary to the juncture. The flowers being very small, and the flowerstalks shorter than the leaf-stalks, are easily overlooked, though they are abundant in their season; but the plant is easily known by the petiole being inserted into the centre of the under side of the leaf, a circumstance uncommon in European plants. It affords an excellent example of what Linnæus calls folium peltatum.

The whole plant is acrid, and probably, like others of the umbelliferous tribe growing in wet places, poisonous. This plant has received its English names of White-rot; Flowkwort; Sheepkilling Penny-grass; Sheep's-bane; and Penny-rot; from an old belief that feeding upon it caused the liver-rot in sheep. This opinion, which is altogether an error, arose from the Fluke or Flounder insect (Fasciola hepatica,) being found in marshy grounds where the Hydrocotyle and other similar plants abound; but sheep are well known never to eat this plant.

An account of the Rot in Sheep, with many useful and interesting remarks on the nature, symptoms, and treatment of that disease, may be seen in LOUDON's Encyclopædia of Agriculture, a book which no Farmer should be without; LOUDON'S Magazine of Natural History, vols. 4 & 5; and BAXTER'S Library of Agricultural and Horticultural Knowledge, (2nd ed.) p. 552.

"The vegetable kingdom opens to the attentive observer a vast field, where he may contemplate the boundless power and omnipotent wisdom of the Creator; where he may discover, with admiration, the most wonderful order, and incomprehensibly beneficial designs."

"Soft roll your incence herbs, and fruits, and flow'rs,
In mingled clouds to HIM; whose sun exhales,
Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints."

THOMSON.

Husseir. delt Pub by WBaxter. Botanic Garden. Oxford 1836.

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