Alisma'ccæ

Alisma'ccæ, a small order of monocotyledonous plants, interesting on account of its remarkably close affinities to the dicotyledons, through Ranunculaceæ. It contains about ten widely distributed genera of herbaceous plants, usually growing in water or even floating. The fleshy rhizome of the water-plantain (Alisma plantago), common in Britain, is sometimes used as food in Eastern Russia. See also ARROWHEAD (Sagittaria).