Stem slender, several feet long, branching, covered with gelatinous matter as are the petioles, peduncles and lower leaf-surfaces. Leaves alternate, oval, entire, 2'-4' long, longpetioled, centrally peltate, floating, palmately veined. Flowers axillary, purple. Sepals and linear petals 3. Stamens 12-18; filaments filiform. Carpels 4-18, separate. Ovules 2 or 3, pendulous from the dorsal suture. Ripe carpels indehiscent, coriaceous, 1-2-seeded.

[Name unexplained.]

A monotypic genus of continental North America, Cuba, eastern and tropical Asia, west tropical Africa, and Australia.

1. Brasenia Schréberi Gmel. Water-Shield Or Water-Target

Fig. 1836

Menyanthes nymphaeoides Thunb. Fl. Jap. 82. 1784.

Not L. 1753. Brasenia Schreberi Gmel. Syst. Veg. 1: 853. 1796. Hydropeltis purpurea Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 324.

pl. 20. 1803. Brasenia peltata Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 389. 1814. Brasenia purpurea Casp. in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pfl.

Fam. 3: Abt. 2, 6. 1890.

Rootstock slender. Leaves 2-4' long, 1 1/2'-2' wide, thick, rounded at each end; flowers 5"-6" in diameter, on long stout peduncles; fruit oblong, 3"-4" long.

In ponds and slow streams, locally distributed from Nova Scotia to Florida, Manitoba, Nebraska and Texas. Also in Cuba, Mexico, and on the Pacific Coast from California to Washington. Deer-food. Frog-leaf. Little water-lily. Summer.