FAMILIES OF FLO WEEING PLANTS 



225 



far the most of which are found in the western United States. They 

 have chistered, usually handsome, flowers, the calyx and corolla 5-cleft 

 or 5-parted, the lobes twisted or contorted. Stamens 5, the anthers ver- 

 satile (attached by the middle); ovary 3-celled, with 3 stigmas, becoming 

 in fruit a 3-valved capsule. The seeds are peculiar, in some cases being 

 winged, and in others enveloped in mucilage and having the property 

 of emitting spiral tubes when wetted. 



This family includes the large genus Phlox, which affords so many 

 ornamental annuals and perennials to our flower beds ; scarcely less 

 pleasing are the Gilias, of which there is an enormous number of species 

 in California. Polemoniwn is represented most abundantly in Alaska 



Fig. 195. Eastern Polemonium, or Jacob's Ladder {Polemoniunt Vanbruniiae) , 



One-half natural size. 



Original. 



and the Rocky Mountains, but there are one or two eastern species (Fig. 

 195). Another familiar garden plant is the exotic climbing vine, Goboea 

 scandens. The Polemoniums, as a rule, possess medicinal properties. 



