GENTIANACEiE. (GENTIAN FAMILY.) 363 
white or slightly reddish. (The ancient Theophrastian name, 
probably from pfjv, month , and avOos , a flower , some say from its 
flowering for about that time.) 
1- M. trifoliata, L. — Bogs, very common northward. May, 
June. — Scape 1° high : flowers handsome. 
8. Gmelin. Floating Heart. 
Calyx 5-parted. Corolla almost wheel-shaped, 5-parted, the 
divisions fringed or bearded at the base or margins only, bearing a 
glandular appendage near the base. Style short or none : stigma 
2-lobed, persistent. Pod few - many-seeded, at length bursting 
irregularly. Seed-coat hard. — Perennial aquatics, with rounded 
floating leaves on very long petioles, which, in most species, bear 
near their summit the umbel of flowers with a cluster of short and 
spur-like roots, sometimes shooting forth new leaves and so spread¬ 
ing by a sort of proliferous stolons. (Name compounded of Xi- 
livrj, a marsh or pool , and avOepov, a blossom , from the situations 
where they grow.) 
1. Ilacimdsum, Griseb. (partly). Leaves round-heart- 
shaped, thickish; lobes of the (white) corolla broadly oval, naked, 
except the crest-like yellowish gland at their base, twice the length 
of the lanceolate calyx-lobes ; style none; seeds perfectly smooth and 
even. (Viltersia lacunosa, Vent. V. cordhta, Ell.) — Shallow ponds, 
from Maine and E. New York to New Jersey and southward. June 
-Sept. — Leaves l'-2' broad, entire, on petioles 4 ; -15' long, accord¬ 
ing to the depth of the water. — L. trachysptrmum, of the South has 
roughened seeds, as its name denotes, and is entirely distinct. 
Suborder III. OBOLARIEA2. The Obolaria Family. 
9* OBOLARIA, L. Obolaria. 
Calyx of 2 spatulate spreading sepals, resembling the leaves. 
Corolla tubular-bell-shaped, withering-persistent, 4-cleft; the lobes 
oval-oblong, or with age spatulate, imbricated in the bud. Sta¬ 
mens inserted at the sinuses of the corolla, short. Style short, 
persistent: stigma 2-lipped. Pod ovoid, 1-celled, but by intru¬ 
sion of the lining half 2 — 4-celled ; the seeds covering the whole 
face of the walls : seed-coat cellular. — A low and very smooth 
purplish-green perennial, with a simple or sparingly branched 
stem, opposite wedge-obovate leaves; the dull white or purplish 
