Hydrilla (water plant with whorled lvs.). Hydrocharitaceae. One aquatic plant of Cent. Eu., Asia and Austral., offered abroad as a water or aquarium subject. H. verticillata, Gasp. Forming large masses, leafy, submerged, dioecious: lvs. linear or oblong, serrulate or entire, 4—8in a whorl, very short ( ¼ - 1/3 in. long): sterile or male fls. solitary and short-pedicelled in a sessile spathe; sepals, petals and stamens 3: fertile or female fls. 1-2 and sessile in the spathe; sepals and petals 3; ovary extending beyond the spathe into a beak; stigmas 3: fls. very small; the male fls. detach and float.
L. H. B.
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