46 LIMNANTHACEAE 



flowers globose, 6-9-celled. Berry black or red, with 6-9 nutlets. [Name Greek, mean- 

 ing on rocks, in reference to the habitat of these plants.] 



A monotypic genus of wide distribution. 



1. Empetrum nigrum L. Black Crowberry or Heathberry. Fig. 3069. 



Etnpetrum nigrum L. Sp. PI. 1022. 1753. 



The spreading branches diffuse, 2-25 cm. long, glabrous, or the young shoots pubescent. 



Leaves crowded, linear-oblong, obtuse, 4-7 mm. long, dark green, the strongly revolute margins 



roughish ; flowers minute, purplish ; berry 4-6 mm. in diameter, black or red in the arctic form. 



Moist rocky places. Boreal Zones; Alaska to Greenland and southward to the coast of northwestern Cali- 

 fornia, Michigan, New England, and northern New York; also in Europe, Asia, and Chile. In the Pacific StJ ' 

 it is found sparingly along the coast and on Mt. Rainier, Washington. Type locality: Europe. June- July. 



States 



Family 83. LIMNANTHACEAE. 



Meadow-foam Family. 



Annual herbs, with pungent juice and alternate pinnately dissected exstipulate 

 leaves. Flowers solitary in the axils, bractless, regular and perfect. Sepals 3-5, per- 

 sistent, valvate. Petals 3-5, marcescent. Stamens 6-10, more or less perigynous on 

 the shallow thickened saucer-shaped hypanthium, those opposite the sepals with a 

 gland at the base. Pistil 3-5-carpellate, the ovaries distinct, the styles united, arising 

 from the inner bases of the ovaries. Fruit of 3-5 more or less tuberculate nutlets. 

 Seeds anatropous, erect ; endosperm none ; embryo straight. 



A North American family of 2 genera and about 12 species. 



Flowers 4-S-merous; petals truncate or emarginate. 1. Litnnanthes. 



Flowers 3-merous; petals obtuse or acute. 2. Floerkea. 



1. LIMNAnTHES R. Br. Phil. Mag. III. 2: 70. 1833. 



Low, usually glabrous annuals, branching from the base, growing in wet places. Leaves 

 simply or usually doubly pinnatifid. Flowers solitary in the axils, usually showy, borne on 

 straight rather stout pedicels. Sepals 5 (rarely 4), ascending, valvate in the bud. Petals 

 as many as sepals, white or yellow, sometimes tinged with rose, especially in age, convo- 

 lute in aestivation. Stamens 10 (rarely 8). Ovaries 5 (rarely 4), and the style as many 

 cleft. [Name from the two Greek words meaning marsh and flower, in reference to the 

 habitat.] 



A genus of 11 species restricted to the Pacific States and Vancouver Island. Type species, Limnanthes 

 Douglasii R. Br. 



Petals well exceeding the lanceolate or subulate-lanceolate sepals. 

 Nutlets without whitish scales. 



Nutlets with a few tubercles or wrinkles at summit or sometimes smooth throughout; petals white or 

 yellow below and white above the middle. 

 Base of petals with a row of cilia on the margins. 



Veins of petals purple or brownish purple; leaflets S or more, lobed or divided into narrow 

 acute or acutish segments or teeth. 

 Basal leaves mostly 7-10 cm. long; Coast Ranges. 1. L. Douglasii. 



Basal leaves mostly 2.5-5 cm. long; Sierra Nevada. 2. L. striata. 



Veins of the petals pellucid; leaflets 3-5, broadly oval or ovate, obtuse and entire. 



3. L. Bakeri. 

 Base of petals without a band of cilia on the margins. 



Nutlets wrinkled at summit; petals cream-colored, often flushed with pink above, truncate at 

 apex. 4. L. versicolor. 



Nutlets with a few tubercles at summit; petals white, obtuse at apex. 5. L. montana. 

 Nutlets covered all over with low broad tubercles, not at all scarious. 6. L. Howelliana. 



Nutlets bearing thin scarious scale-like tubercles. 



Nutlets with a few whitish scale-like tubercles at apex, otherwise smooth or slightly wrinkled. 

 Sepals long-villous especially on the inner surface. 7. L. alba. 



Sepals glabrous on both surfaces ; petals aging rose-colored at apex. 8. L. gracilis. 



Nutlets densely covered all over with scarious scale-like tubercles; petals aging rose-colored; sepals 

 glabrous. 9. L. rosea. 



Petals shorter than or scarcely equaling the sepals, obtuse at apex. 



Sepals glabrous. 10. L. pumila. 



Sepals floccose-villous, especially so within. 11. L. floccosa. 



\. Limnanthes Douglasii R. Br. Common Meadow-foam. Fig. 3070. 



Limnanthes Douglasii R.Br. Phil. Mag. III. 2: 70. 1833. 

 Limnanthes sulphurea Loud. Encycl. PI. 1543. 1855. 

 Floerkea Douglasii Baillon, Adansonia 10: 362. 1873. 



Stems much branched near the base, decumbent to erect, 10-30 cm. long, glabrous. Leaves 



