PISTILLA. Germina plerumque quatuor, raro tria seu quinque. Styli nulli. Stigmata subulata, incurvata. PERICARPIUM. Capsulæ quatuor, rarius tres seu quinque, ovatæ, subulato-acutæ, exteriore latere gibbæ, interiore planæ, glabræ, unilocularis. SEMINA, in quacumque capsula tria, basi capsula affixa, sessilia, obovata, obtusissima, sub-compressa, glabra. EMPALEMENT none, except a sheathing scale surrounding the outer side of the flower, simple, sitting close, egg-shaped, obtuse, intire, upright, smooth, coloured. BLOSSOM none. CHIVES. Threads eleven to nineteen, in the upper flowers fewer, inserted between the spathe and the capsules, awl-shaped, smooth, white, much shorter than the spathe. Tips upright, two-cleft. POINTALS. Seed-buds often four, seldom three or five. Shafts none. Summits awl-shaped, turned inwards. SEED-VESSEL. Capsules four, seldom three or five, egg-shaped, pointed, awl-shaped, unequally swelled on the outside, flat on the inner, smoothed, one-celled. SEEDS in each capsule three, fixed to the base of it, sitting close, inversely egg-shaped, very blunt, rather flattish, smooth. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. Aponogeton spica bifida; foliis eliptico-lanceolatis, natantibus; bracteis integris; floribus polyandris. Aponogeton with a two-branched spike; leaves eliptically lance-shaped, floating; floral leaves entire; flowers with many chives. REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 1. A Floret, with its floral leaf, magnified. 2. The Seed-buds and Summits, magnified. This Genus of Plants in the Catalogue of the Kew Garden, is placed to the Class Heptandria, and perhaps, with as much propriety as where it now stands in Thunberg, Schreber, &c. for the number of chives in almost every floret differs in this, and all the other species, from six to twenty. It is there said to have been introduced to us in 1788 from the Cape of Good Hope by Mr. F. Masson. It is found near Cape Town in most of the brooks; is very sweet scented, and flowers from April till November. As an aquatic it is very desirable for those who cultivate those plants, the fragrance of the flowers being nearly equal to our Nymphæa alba, or White Water Lily; and this, added to the contrasted effect of the deep brown antheræ upon the pure white floral leaves, which indeed have the appearance of blossoms, give the whole an indescribable trait of beauty, peculiar to itself. Our figure was taken from a plant in the Hibbertian collection. [Illustration] PLATE CCXCI. SENECIO PSEUDO-CHINA. _China-root Groundsel._ CLASS XIX. ORDER II. _SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA._ Tips united. Superfluous Pointals. GENERIC CHARACTER. CALYX. Communis calyculatus, conicus, truncatus; squamis subulatis, plurimis, in cylindrum superne contractum, parallelis, contiguis, æqualibus, paucioribus basin imbricatim tegentibus, apicibus emortuis. COROLLA. Composita, calyce altior; Corullulæ hermaphroditæ tubulosæ, numerosæ in disco; Femineæ ligulatæ in radio (si quæ adsint).