| 释义 |
‖ Pistia Bot.|ˈpɪstɪə|
[mod.L. (Linnæus 1737); cf. Gr. πιστός drinkable, liquid. (? in allusion to its deriving its nutriment from water.)]
A genus of floating water-plants allied to Duckweed, the type of family Pistiaceæ, comprising one species (P. Stratiotes), which covers the surface of ponds and tanks in warm countries; also called tropical duckweed, and (in W. Indies) water-lettuce.
1765J. Bartram Jrnl. 31 Dec. in W. Stork Acc. E. Florida (1766) 17 At the entrance of the river into the great lake there floats prodigious quantities of the pistia. 1878H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. vi. 183 The inhabitants..devoted themselves..to fishing, and the manufacture of salt from the Pistia plants. 1906Blackw. Mag. Feb. 213/1 The floating Pistia, for all the world like a minute cabbage. |