Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
Order VIII. ElatineÆ
Order VIII. ElatineÆ.
Small herbs or undershrubs, usually growing in wet places. Leaves opposite, stipulate. Flowers minute, regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals and petals each 2–5, free, imbricate. Stamens equal in number to the petals or twice as many, hypogynous, free; anthers versatile. Ovary free, 2–5-celled; styles as many as the cells, free from the base; stigmas capitate; ovules many, attached to the inner angles of the cells, anatropous. Capsule septicidal, the valves falling away from the persistent axis and septa. Seeds straight or curved; albumen wanting, or nearly so; embryo terete, radicle next the hilum.
A small and unimportant order, spread over the whole world. Genera 2; species about 25.
1. Elatine, Linn.
Small prostrate glabrous annuals, growing in water or wet places. Leaves opposite or whorled. Flowers small, axillary, usually solitary. Sepals 2–4, membranous, obtuse. Petals the same number. Ovary globose. Capsule membranous, the septa remaining attached to the axis or evanescent. Seeds cylindric, straight, or curved, longitudinally ridged and transversely wrinkled.
Species about 6, found in most temperate and subtropical regions.