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THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY.
or slow moving fresh water of varying depths either as a free floater or rooted in the mud like a swamp plant. It is this indifference with regard to the habitat which makes it not the only troublesome weed that it is but also occasions the formation or not of bladders which are the most striking peculiarity about the plant. An examination of the plant in different surroundings will disclose four principal types, viz., (l) all the leaves of the plant with bladders; (2) all without bladders, (3) outer bladdered and inner bladderless, and (4) outer bladderless and inner bladdered.
Morphology : — In its best development the bladder is a rounded or pear-shaped structure 1 to 1^ in. in diameter, representing the
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whole of the leaf stalk and separated from the lamina by a short neck and narrowed at the base. From ten to fifteen leaves become closely aggregated together so as to form a rosette, and from the axils of many of the leaves new shoots arise which end in similar rosettes and originate fresh shoots in their turn. In this way are formed chains of sympodes radiating in all directions and covering a wide expanse of water in a surprisingly short period. Along with these there are also plants in which the bladders attain various stages of development leading to those which show only a slight swelling in the stalk or to its complete disappearance. These do
