each carpel, basilar, erect, anatropous. Fruit of 3 or 6 free or connate coriaceous nutlets separating from a central axis. Seeds erect, cylindric or ovoid, terete or compressed; testa membranous; embryo straight.
About 12 species are known, spread through most temperate or subtropical regions, but especially plentiful in Australia. Both the New Zealand species are widely distributed.
Triglochin is often regarded as forming (with 3 other small genera) a distinct order (Juncaqinaceæ), but for the purposes of this work it appears most convenient to merge it with the Naiadaceæ.
| Scape 3–10 in. high. Fruit subglobose | 1. T. striatum. |
| Scape 6–24 in. high. Fruit clavate | 2. T. palustre. |
1. T. striatum, Ruiz and Pav. Fl. Per. iii. 72; var. filifolium, Buch. Index Crit. (1868) 59.—Rhizome short, stoloniferous. Leaves numerous, very narrow-linear or almost filiform, semiterete, variable in length, shorter or rather longer than the scape. Scape 3–10 in. high; raceme usually occupying about one-half the length. Flowers numerous, shortly pedicelled, minute, about 112 in. diam. Outer perianth-segments broadly ovate; inner smaller and narrower. Perfect stamens 3, at the base of the outer segments; three inner abortive, without pollen, sometimes altogether wanting. Fruit globose, 110 in. diam., of 3 perfect carpels separating from a central axis and leaving 3 scale-like barren ones attached to it.—Buchenau in Pflanzenreich, Heft iv. 14. T. striatum, Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 166. T. triandrum, Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. i. 208; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 236; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 278. T. flaccidum, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 321; Raoul, Choix, 41. T. filifolium, Sieb. ex Sprang. Syst. iv. 142; Hook. Ic. Plant. 579.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Abundant throughout in marshes near the sea; also inland in various localities in the thermal-springs district from Te Aroha and Rotorua to Taupo and Tokaanu. October–January.
The New Zealand variety is also found in Australia, Tasmania, and Chili; the typical state ranges throughout almost the whole of North and South America, and also occurs in South Africa.
2. T. palustre, Linn. Sp. Plant. 338.—Rhizome short, stoloniferous. Leaves all radical, much shorter than the scape, narrow-linear or filiform, semiterete, upper surface faintly grooved. Scape slender, 6–24 in. high; raceme elongating after flowering. Flowers numerous, shortly pedicelled, minute, green or greenish-purple. Perianth-segments ovate, all equal. Stamens 6, all fertile; anthers purple. Fruit appressed to the rhachis, linear-clavate, ¼ in. long; carpels 3, very slender, almost awned at the base, attached to the axis by the tip.—Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 300.
