HIPPURIS*. Linnean Class and Order. MONA'NDRIA†, MONOGY'NIA. Natural Order. HALORA'GEE. Dr. R. Brown.-Lindl. Syn. p. 110; Introd. to Nat. Syst. p. 57.-HYGROBIEE. Rich by Macgilliv. p. 521.-NAIADES. Juss.-Sm. Gram. of Bot. p. 66. GEN. CHAR. Calyx superior, scarcely discernable, forming a minute rim to the oval Germen, (figs. 1 & 2). Corolla none. Filament one, superior, upright, fixed within the calyx, produced as the anther ripens. Anther of two round lobes, at first sessile. Style awl-shaped, lying in a channel of the anther, (fig. 1). Stigma simple, pointed. Fruit (fig. 3.) a small, 1-celled, 1-seeded nut. Distinguished from other genera in the same class and order, by the very minute, superior calyx, simple stigma, and 1-seeded fruit. One species British. HIPPU'RIS VULGA'RIS. Common Mare's Tail. SPEC. CHAR. Leaves linear, many in each whorl. Eng. Bot. t. 763-Curt. Fl. Lond. t. 287.-Huds. Fl. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 2.Sm. Fl. Brit. v. i. p. 4. Engl. Fl. v. i. p. 4.-With. (7th ed.) v. ii. p. 6.-Lind. Syn. p. 110.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 2.-Don's General System of Gardening and Botany, v. ii. p. 705. f. 104.-Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 556.-Lightf. Fl. Scot. v. i. p. 70.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 1.-Abbot's Fl. Bedf. p. 1.-Purt. Midl. Fl. v. iii. p. 3.-Relh. Fl. Cant. (3rd ed.) p. 2.-Hook. Fl. Scot. p. 2.-Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 1.-Mackay's Catal. of Plants found in Ireland, p. 7.-Johnson's Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed, (1829) v. ii. p. 272.-Walk. Fl of Oxf. p. 1.—Limnopeuce, Ray's Syn. p. 136.-Cauda equina fœmina, Johnson's Gerarde, p. 1114. LOCALITIES.-In lakes, ponds, and watery ditches.-Not common.-Oxfordshire; Blenheim Park; Ensham Common; Binsey Common: Dr. SIBTHOrp, in Fl. Oxon. Ditches near the Canal between High Bridge and Hayfield's Hut; in Port Meadow; and between Oxford and Botley: 1833. W. B.-Bedfordshire; In ditches, common: Rev. C. ABBOT, in Fl. Bedf.-Buckinghamshire; In a lake near a bridge in the Duke of Buckingham's Park at Stow, plentiful: 1831. W. B.-Cambridgeshire; In ponds, ditches, marshes, and rivers: Rev. R. RELHAN, in Fl. Cant.-Cumberland; In Old Eden, parish of Aldingham, and at Low Gelt Bridge, Brampton: Mr. HUTCHINSON, in With. Bot. Arr.— Durham; In the Skerne, near the bridge at Darlington: and at Hell Kettles : Rev. J. T. FENWICK, in Winch's Botanist's Guide through the Counties of Northumberland and Durham, (1805) -- Gloucestershire; A lake in Tortworth Park: Mr. BAKER, in With. Bot. Arr.-Hampshire; Common in streams about Alresford, and Winchester: Mr. W. PAMPLIN, jun.-Lancashire; Almost every where in muddy ditches in the N. W. part of the county: Mr. HALL. At Bootle, and in ditches about Formby, near Liverpool: Dr. BoSTOCK, in With. Fig. 1. A Flower in a young state, showing the Stamen, the Germen, and the Style.-Fig. 2. The same in a more advanced state. Fig. 3. The Fruit.-Fig. 4. A transverse slice of the Stem, showing the large Air Cells.-All, more or less, magnified. From Ippos, Gr. a horse, and oura, Gr. a tail; from a fancied resemblance in its mode of growth. WITHERING. + From monos, Gr. one, and aner, Gr. The first of the twenty-four classes of the Artificial System of LINNEUS: it comprehends all those plants which produce perfect flowers, (i. e. flowers which have each of them one or more stamens and pistils,) with only one stamen in each. "From monos, Gr. one, and gune; here made applicable to the pistil, or style, an essential part of the pistil; or, when the style is so short as not to be visible, the stigmas are counted. The student will do well to bear in mind the meaning of the names applied to the Linnean Classes and Orders, for they are beautifully expressive of their essential characters." Dr. HoORER. River, and in a bog on Uxbridge Moor, plentiful: BLACKSTONE, in Spec. Bot. p. 20.-Norfolk; Near Lynn, and in other parts of the county: Sir J. E. SMITH, in Fl. Brit.-Northamptonshire; Near the bridge entering Brockhall Lawn from Norton: Mr. GRIFFITH, in Withering.-Northumberland; At Prestwick Cair Winch's Guide.-Staffordshire; About a mile from Stafford, in ditches adjoining the foot-road to Aston: Dr. WITHERING, in Bot. Arr.Suffolk; About Bungay, very common: Mr. WOODWARD, in Bot. Guide.Yorkshire; In the lakes on Brigstear Moss, about four miles from Kendall, plentiful: Mr. CURTIS, in Fl. Lond. In rivers and rivulets about Castle Howard: Mr. R. TEESDALE, in Trans of Linn. Soc. v. ii. p. 104. Near Rotherham: Mr. LANGLEY, in Loud. Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. ii. p. 269.-WALES. Flintshire; In ditches adjoining Rhyd Marsh, near Prestatyn: Mr. GRIFFITH, in With. Bot. Arr.-Berwick-upon-Tweed; In the Leet below Belville Farm, in the parish of Eccles: Rev. A. BAIRD, in Fl. of Berwick. Lithtillum Loch and Ferneyrig Marsh: Mr. R. D. THOMSON, ibid.-SCOTLAND. Lochend and Duddingston Loch near Edinburgh: Mr. BROWN, in With. Bot. Arr.— Castle Semple Loch near Glasgow: Mr. HOPKIRK, in Hook. Fl. Scot-About Forfar: Mr. G. Don, ibid.-Loch of Clunie, and Marsh of Bonachalley: Mr. ARNOTT, ibid.-IRELAND. Plentiful in the ponds in Mr. White's demesne at Woodlands: Mr. J. T. MACKAY, in Catal. of Plants of Ireland. Perennial.-Flowers in May and June. Root creeping, white, throwing out numerous slender fibres from the joints. Stems numerous, rising a foot or more above the water, upright, simple, round, smooth, striated, jointed, spongy, with a central column containing spiral vessels. Leaves from 8 to 10 or 12 in a whorl round each joint of the stem, sessile, narrow, strapshaped, from half an inch to three quarters of an inch, or more, long, somewhat callous at the points, quite entire, without nerves. Flowers very simple, sessile, one at the base of each of the upper leaves, the lower ones often without stamens. Calyx very minute, forming a slightly elevated rim on the top of the germen. Filament attached to the inside of the calyx, at first very short, (fig. 1.) but afterwards becoming as long as the pistil, (fig. 2). Anthers very large, of two roundish lobes, when young having the style passing between the lobes, (fig. 1). Style short, naked. Stigma tapering to a point, white and downy when magnified. Germen inferior, oval. Fruit a small 1-celled nut, (fig. 3.) containing a single, inverted seed. Dr. HOOKER informs us, in his British Flora, that in deep streams of water connecting the little Lakes, or Broads, at Surlingham, Norfolk, he had had this plant pointed out to him, by Mr. DEERE, 2 and 3 feet long, with the leaves excessively crowded, 3, and even 4 inches long, pellucid, with an opaque nerve, their points not callous; the whole plant submerged, and consequently barren. On Ben-y-gloe, in Scotland, at a considerable elevation above the sea, the same distinguished Botanist found a variety, the opposite extreme of this, scarcely 4 inches high, and apparently the Hippuris montana of Reich Ic. t. 86. According to the observations of LINNEUS, goats will eat this plant, but cows, sheep, horses, and swine refuse it. GMELIN says, that wild-ducks in the North feed upon it; and it is reputed to assist in purifying the air in standing water, marshes, &c.-A transverse slice of the stem (fig. 4.) is a beautiful microscopic object. |