WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 19 1 



Kneiffia linearis (Michaux) Spach, with pedicels of the fruit 

 shorter than the capsule; leaves very narrow, and Kneiffia puniila 

 (Linnaeus) Spach, with small flowers one-half to i inch broad and almost 

 sessile club-shaped fruit pods. 



Biennial Gaura 



Gaura biennis Linnaeus 



Plate 148 



Stems slender, erect, 2 to 5 feet high, branched, especially above, 

 and downy or softly hairy. Leaves alternate, sessile, narrow, pointed 

 at both ends, remotely toothed on the margins, 2 to 4 inches long and 

 one-sixth to one-half of an inch wide. Flowers white or whitish, turning 

 pink with age, very numerous in spikes terminating the stems and branches; 

 each flower somewhat less than one-half of an inch broad; calyx tube with 

 four reflexed lobes; petals four, oblanceolate, somewhat unequal; stamens 

 eight, declined, each slender filament with a small scale at the base; stigma 

 four-lobed, surrounded by a cuplike border. Fruit nutlike, sessile, one- 

 fourth to one-third of an inch long, narrowed at each end, four-ribbed 

 and hairy. 



In dry, sandy or waste soil, Quebec to Minnesota, south to Connecticut, 

 Georgia and Arkansas. Flowering from July to September. 



Ginseng Family 



Araliaceae 

 Dwarf Ginseng or Groundnut 



Panax trifolium Linnaeus 



Plate J32b 



A small, smooth herb, 3 to 6 inches high from a deep-seated, globose, 

 perennial tuber, one-half of an inch or less in diameter and very pungent 

 to the taste. Leaves three, at the summit of the slender stem on petioles 

 one-half to 2 inches long; each leaf with three to five oval or oblanceolate, 

 sessile, blunt leaflets, i to 2 inches long and one-fourth to two-thirds of 

 an inch wide, finely toothed on the margins. Flowers white, fifteen to 



