406 CISTACEAE 
Famity IJ].—ELATINACEAE. Water-wort FAMILY 
Low herbs, with opposite leaves; in our species with undivided 
borders; provided with small membraneous stipules between the 
opposite leaves. Flowers of our species mainly solitary in the leaf 
axils. Pod round, 2- to 4-celled. 
ELATINE, L. 
Divisions of calyx and of corolla 2 to 4. Stamens usually as many as 
petals. Dwarf plants growing in mud or in water, often rooting at the 
leaf nodes. 
E. americana, (Pursh.) Arn. (Fig. 4, pl. 97.) WatTeR-wort. Mup 
PuRSLANE. ‘Tufted, spreading, stems 1 to 14 in. long; leaves obtuse. 
Flowers generally solitary in leaf-axils. Margins of ponds and sluggish 
streams. Blooms all summer, 
Famity IIJ.—CISTACEAE. Rock Rost Famity 
Low, shrubby plants, mostly of herbaceous aspect with regular 
flowers, but with the two outer sepals (when 5 sepals are present) 
smaller than the others, resembling small bracts. Petals 3 to 5, 
falling early. Stamens generally numerous, each free from the 
others. Fruit capsule one-celled with 3 to 5 valves. Leaves simple, 
not lobed or serrate, upper alternate, lower usually differing in 
size and form from the stem leaves, usually opposite. 
Petals five. 
Flowers small yellow. 
Style ‘long and slender’... . . .. . ° Hiwdsanig 
Flowers large, yellow. 
Style very short or none. . . . . Helianthemum 
Petals three. Flowers small, greenish-purple . . . Lechea 
rt HELIANTHEMUM, Tourn. 
Woody herbs, with conspicuous yellow flowers, also, in our species, with 
other flowers without petals and therefore inconspicuous. Petals of the 
large yellow flowers falling on the day following the opening of the 
flowers. Valves of the capsule 3. Stamens numerous. 
1. H. majus, (L.). BSP. (Fig. 1, pl. 97.) Hoary Frostwexp. 
Stems 1 to 2 ft. high, frosted with grayish-white hairs. Leaves oblong 
lance-shaped, the main stem leaves alternate 4 to 14 in, long. Flowers 
in a terminal cluster of 5 to 10, bright. yellow about an .inch broad. 
Calyx hoary like the stem, the outer sepals nearly as long as the three 
inner. Later there appear at the leaf axils branches bearing flowers 
without petals. These apetalous flowers grow directly upon the stem or 
with very short foot-stalks. Dry soils. June-July, P 
