1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hydrocharideae

Fig. 1.—Hydrocharis Morsusranae—Frog-bit—male plant.

1, Female flower.
2, Stamens, enlarged.
3, Barren pistil of male flower, enlarged.
4, Pistil of female flower.
5, Fruit.
6, Fruit cut transversely.
7, Seed.
8, 9, Floral diagrams of male and female flowers respectively.
s, Rudimentary stamens.

HYDROCHARIDEAE, in botany, a natural order of Monocotyledons, belonging to the series Helobieae. They are water-plants, represented in Britain by frog-bit (Hydrocharis Morsusranae) and water-soldier (Stratiotes aloïdes). The order contains about fifty species in fifteen genera, twelve of which occur in fresh water while three are marine: and includes both floating and submerged forms. Hydrocharis floats on the surface of still water, and has rosettes of kidney-shaped leaves, from among which spring the flower-stalks; stolons bearing new leaf-rosettes are sent out on all sides, the plant thus propagating itself on the same way as the strawberry. Stratiotes aloïdes has a rosette of stiff sword-like leaves, which when the plant is in flower project above the surface; it is also stoloniferous, the young rosettes sinking to the bottom at the beginning of winter and rising again to the surface in the spring. Vallisneria (eel-grass) contains two species, one native of tropical Asia, the other inhabiting the warmer parts of both hemispheres and reaching as far north as south Europe. It grows in the mud at the bottom of fresh water, and the short stem bears a cluster of long, narrow grass-like leaves; new plants are formed at the end of horizontal runners. Another type is represented by Elodea canadensis or water-thyme, which has been introduced into the British Isles from North America. It is a small, submerged plant with long, slender branching stems bearing whorls of narrow toothed leaves; the flowers appear at the surface when mature. Halophila, Enhalus and Thalassia are submerged maritime plants found on tropical coasts, mainly in the Indian and Pacific oceans; Halophila has an elongated stem rooting at the nodes; Enhalus a short, thick rhizome, clothed with black threads resembling horse-hair, the persistent hard-bast strands of the leaves; Thalassia has a creeping rooting stem with upright branches bearing crowded strap-shaped leaves in two rows. The flowers spring from, or are enclosed in, a spathe, and are unisexual and regular, with generally a calyx and corolla, each of three members; the stamens are in whorls of three, the inner whorls are often barren; the two to fifteen carpels form an inferior ovary containing generally numerous ovules on often large, produced, parietal placentas. The fruit is leathery or fleshy, opening irregularly. The seeds contain a large embryo and no endosperm. In Hydrocharis (fig. 1), which is dioecious, the flowers are borne above the surface of the water, have conspicuous white petals, contain honey and are pollinated by insects. Stratiotes has similar flowers which come above the surface only for pollination, becoming submerged again during ripening of the fruit. In Vallisneria (fig. 2), which is also dioecious, the small male flowers are borne in large numbers in short-stalked spathes; the petals are minute and scale-like, and only two of the three stamens are fertile; the flowers become detached before opening and rise to the surface, where the sepals expand and form a float bearing the two projecting semi-erect stamens. The female flowers are solitary and are raised to the surface on a long, spiral stalk; the ovary bears three broad styles, on which some of the large, sticky pollen-grains from the floating male flowers get deposited, (fig. 3). After pollination the female flower becomes drawn below the surface by the spiral contraction of the long stalk, and the fruit ripens near the bottom. Elodea has polygamous flowers (that is, male, female and hermaphrodite), solitary, in slender, tubular spathes; the male flowers become detached and rise to the surface; the females are raised to the surface when mature, and receive the floating pollen from the male. The flowers of Halophila are submerged and apetalous.

The order is a widely distributed one; the marine forms are tropical or subtropical, but the fresh-water genera occur also in the temperate zones.

Fig. 2.—Vallisneria spiralis—Eel grass—about 1/4 natural size. A, Female plant; B, Male plant.	Fig. 3.