Amentum e squamis compositum. Calyx nullus. Corolla nulla. Capsulæ 4, trispermæ.
Catkin composed of scales. Empalement none. Blossom none. Capsules 4, three-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &C.
Aponogeton, spicâ simplici, foliis cordato-ovalibus. Willd. Sp. Pl. 2. 927.
Aponogeton, with a simple spike, and heart-oval shaped leaves.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The chives detached.
2.The pointals detached.
3. The same magnified
Four species only of this singular genus have hitherto been enumerated by authors: viz. the present one from the East Indies; crispum, a native of Ceylon; and angustifolium and distachyon, from the Cape of Good Hope; the last of which is the most showy, and is figured on our 290th plate.
They are all water plants, and could no more thrive with their roots and natant leaves out of that element than an Aloe or Stapelia could prosper in it: they are therefore, along with other tropical aquatics, cultivated in our hot-houses in troughs or cisterns of rich earth and clear water; in which, consociated with the majestic Nymphææ, the stately Thalia, and the more humble but not less interesting Menyanthes indica, they produce a most fragrant and desirable appearance; that perhaps is indebted for some of its charms to the fine contrast formed by the terrestrial exotics which surround them.
In a collection of tropical plants, where a few cisterns of aquatics are judiciously interspersed, the oppressive heat of the stove in which they grow, is as it were delusively alleviated, “in the mind’s eye,” by the simple, yet cooling sight of the little pools of water in which they float. Few are the number of observers who contemplate them without imbibing pleasure. This unquestionably arises from the strong but agreeable contrast that is exhibited to the eye, by the happy junction of the productions of the waters with those of the earth. They are vegetables of widely different orders—productions of very different natures—and inhabitants of elements diametrically opposite.