ALIRAJPUR, an Indian State under the Southern agency in central India. It lies in Malwa, near the frontier of Bombay. It has an area of 836sq.m. ; and a pop. (1931) of 1°1,963. The country is hilly, and many of the inhabitants are aboriginal Bhils. ALISMACEAE, in botany, a family of monocotyledons longing to the series Helobieae, and represented in Britain by the water plantain, Alisma Plantago, the arrow-head, Sagittaria, the star-fruit, Damasonium, and ering rush, Butomus. They are marsh or water-plants with erally a stout stem (rhizome) creeping in the mud, radical leaves and a large, much branched inflorescence. The submerged leaves are long and like, the floating leaves oblong or rounded, while the aerial leaves are borne on long, thin stalks above the water, and are often arrow-shaped at the base. The flower-bearing stem is tall; the flowers are borne in whorls on the axis as in arrow-head, on whorled branchlets as in water plantain or in an umbel as in Butomus (see fig.). They are regular and rather showy, generally with three greenish sepals, followed in regular succession by three white or purplish petals, six to indefinite stamens and six to indefinite free carpels. The fruit is a head of achenes or follicles. The flowers contain honey, and attract flies or other small insects by which pollination is effected. There are about 75 species in eleven genera, widely dis tributed in temperate and warm zones. Alisma Plantago (see fig.), a common plant in Britain (except in the north) in ditches and edges of streams, is widely distributed in the north temperate zone and on mountains.
In the United States and Canada the family is represented by about 4o native species, some three-fourths of which are arrow heads. Among the other representatives are the cosmopolitan water plantain, two species of bur-head (Echinodorus), t h e dwarf bur-head (Helianthium parvulum) and the fringed water plantain or star-fruit (Damason ium californicum) of California.
(See ARROW-HEAD.)