HYDROCHARACE2E, a natural order of float ing or water plants ; six genera with eleven species occur in the East Indies, viz. species of Ottelia, Vallisneria, Hydrilla, Blyxa, Enhalus, Boottia, and Hydrocharis. Hydrilla verticillata, along with similar plants, is employed by sugar refiners for covering the surface of their sugars, to permit the slow percolation of water. Enhalus acoroides has a sulphurous smell. Its fruit is eatable, raw, boiled, or roasted ; if-boiled, the nuts acquire the taste of boiled ehesnuts. The natives of the Moluccas make nets of the tough threads which remain after the putrified leaves ; these nets are said to be very durable in sea water. Blyxa octandra, Rich, grows all over India ; 13oottia cor data, Blatt., a plant of Promo and Taong-Dong. Enhalus acoroides, Linn. (Acorns marinus, Rumph., Stratiotes acoroides, Linn.), grows in the Konkans and Moluccas.
I Iyd rilla verticillata, Linn.
Scrpicula verticillata, L. f. I Udora vexticillata, Spreng. Vallisneria verticillata, It. I Hottonia serrata, Will*. Kurclec, . . . Him).Jliangh, . . . . PANJ.
wI Jala, Pa . Punachu 'PEI This, with other aquatic plants, is used by the sugar-refiners of Saharunpur for covering the surface of sugar, in order to allow the slow percolation of water when refining it. It is com mon in water in parts of the Panjab plains up to Peshawur. It is used east of Sutlej for refining sugar, but at Multan, west of that river, it is not obtainable.—Stetvart, Panj. Plants, p. 241.
Hydrocharis cellulosa, II. B.
Ottelia alismoides, Pers.
Stratiotes alismoides, Linn. I Damasonium Indicum, Hymenotheca laxifolia, Willcie.
Sulfa. D. alismoides, B. Br.
It is the Panee-kula of Bengal, and grows in most parts of India.
Vallisneria alternifolia, Roxb., the Rusnojhangi of Bengal, grows there and in the Konkans and Coromandel. V. physicum, Juss 'is' a' plant of Cochin-China. . .
Vallisneria spiralis, Linn.
V. spiraloides, Boxb. I V. Jacquiniana, Spreng.
A plant of Europe, America, and India. HYDROCOTYLE ASIATICA. L. Pennywort.
Hydrocotyle rotundifolia, Walt.
Thulkuri, . . . BENG. I Munduka bnunmi, TEL. Kodagam, . . DIALEAL. Bokkudu, . . . • „ Munduka purni, . SAME.1 Pinna yelaki chettu, . „ Hecn-gotu kola, . SINGH. Babbasai elaka, . . „ Vullari kire, . . Thu. Elika chavi kura, . . „ A small herbaceous creeping plant with little purplish red flowers, a native of Africa and America, and in moist shady places all over Southern Asia. It has long been employed in medicine, its leaves applied to bruises, and its virtue in leprosy has been latterly again much lauded. An infusion of the toasted leaves is given to children in fever and bowel complaints.—Ainsl.