LiMNANTHEs. LIMNANTHACE7E. 209 



mostly obtuse at the base, on short petioles. Flower large. — Balsam. Snap- 

 weed. 



-M,. I.fulva (Nutt.): somewhat glaucous; leaves rhombic-ovate, coarsely 

 and obtusely serrate, teeth mucronate ; peduncles 2-4-flovvered ; lower sepal 

 acutely conic, longer than the petals, with a rather long resupinate spur; 

 floAver deep orange, witli numerous reddish-brown spots. — Null. I.e.; DC. 

 I. a.; Hook. I. c. I. bitlora, \V<ilt. Car. p. 219 ; Pursh, I. c. ; Ell. sk. 1. p. 

 304. I. nolitangcre, /?. Alichx. ! l. c. ; Bigd.fi. Bust. ed. 2. p. 93. I. macu- 

 lata, Muhl. cat. p. 26. 



In wet shady places, from Canada ! (lat. 66=) and Newfoundland (Hooker) 

 to Georgia ; more abundant than the preceding in the Northern States. 

 Oregon, Dr. Scouler ! Nuttall ! June-Sepl.— ® A smaller plant than I. 

 paUida, with smaller flowers. Leaves mostly cuneiform at the base, on 

 slender petioles. Lower sepal longer tlian broad. — Balsam. Snap-weed. 



Order XXX. LIMNANTHACE^. R. Br. 



Sepals 3-5, united at the base, persistent, with a valvate aestivation. 

 Petals 3-5, marcescent. Stamens twice the number of the petals, and 

 inserted with them upon a thin somewhat perigynous disk : filaments 

 distinct, those opposite the sepals having a small process or gland at 

 the base on the outside, those opposite the petals sometimes shortest : 

 anthers roundish, introrse. Ovary consisting of 2-5 distinct carpels, 

 opposite the sepals ; the styles united into one nearly to the top : stig- 

 mas simple. Achenia rather fleshy? the cavity filled by the solitary 

 seed. Seed erect, anatropous, without albumen. Embryo with very 

 large amygdaloid cotyledons ; radicle very short, included. — Annual 

 glabrous herbs (exclusively North American), with more or less of the 

 acrid taste of Tropaeolum, growing in swampy places. Leaves alter- 

 nate, exstipulate, pinnately divided. Flowers axillary, solitary : pedun- 

 cles somewhat dilated at the apex. 



The ovaries in this order have a gynobasic structure ; that is, are more or less 

 distinct, with the styles united by means of a more or less manifest central axis, 

 which is a prolongation of the flattened torus on wliich the ovaries rest. The order 

 is evidently more nearly allied to Tropaeolum than to any other known plants. 



1. LIMNANTHES. i?. Br. in Land. ^ Edinh.phil. mag. July, 1833 ; 

 Lindl. hot. reg. t. 1673. 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, cuneiform, retuse, longer than the sepals: aestivation 

 convolute. Stamens 10. Ovaries 5. — Leaves bipinnatifid ; the divisions 

 often alternate. 



L. Douglasil (R. BroAvn,l. c.) — Benth. in. hori. trans, (ser. 2.) 1 p. 409 

 Don, in Brit. Jl. gard. (ser. 2.) t. 37S. 



(California, Douglas. — Shghtly succulent. Flowers rather conspicuous- 

 Petals of a delicate yellow at the base, bordered with white. 



27 



