MARSH FELWORT 



Pleurogyne fontana A . Nels. 

 GENTIAN FAMILY 



This plant is probably an unfamiliar one to many of our 

 readers. It is said by the late Mr. J. M. Macoun to be character- 

 istic of alkali flats in the southern part of the prairie country, 

 and Rydberg's Flora gives its habitat as mountain bogs. The 

 plants pictured on the opposite page grew hundreds of miles 

 from the international boundary and far from the mountains, 

 and it probably occurs on brackish shores and in salt marshes 

 over a wide range. 



One reason why it is little known is its habit of opening its 

 flowers in bright sunshine only, and then for but a short time. 

 Another is that its usual rather desolate surroundings do not 

 promise the flower lover much in the way of floral beauty, and he 

 is likely to turn to more fertile fields. Finally, it is a capricious 

 annual and may appear in a neighborhood one season and then 

 not to be seen again for several succeeding years. In this latter 

 elusive quality it resembles its beautiful relative the fringed 

 gentian whose flowers of heavenly blue have captivated alike 

 the poet and the artist. 



Individual plants of the Marsh Felwort, even when growing 

 together, differ curiously in size. Some are three or four inches 

 high bearing but one or two blossoms, each slender stem bending 

 to the lightest breeze. Others grow to a height of fifteen inches 

 and are stiffly erect with a dozen or more close-set flowers. The 

 white corolla is so deeply cleft into four or five lobes, that each 

 seems to be a separate petal. At first sight, also, the flower 

 seems to have neither style nor stigmas. The style is indeed 

 lacking, but closer examination will revel the latter as stigmatose 

 lines on the sides of the ovary quite an unusual arrangement. 



The flowers open in late Summer and it is always a pleasant 

 surprise to find such pure and delicate beauty amid the usual 

 coarse vegetation of its environment. 



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