74 LTMXANTITACE^. (LIMXAXTTIES FAMILY.) 



the larger ones, 1 above, which seldom ripen seeds, and very small 



ones, which are fertili/ed early in the bud, when the floral envelopes never ex- 

 pand, nor grow to their full si/e, but are foreed off by the growing pod and ear- 

 ried upwards on its apex. (Name from the sudden bursting of the pods when 

 touched, whence also the popular appellation, Touch-me-not, or Snap-weed.) 



1. I. piallula, Nutt. (PALE TOUCH-ME-NOT.) Flowers pale yellow, spar- 

 ni>/t>/ dotted with brownish-red ; sac dilated and very obtuse, broader than long, 

 tipped with a short incurved spur. Moist shady places and along rills, in rich 

 soil; most common northwestward. July -Sept. Larger and greener than 

 th'- next, with larger flowers. Leaves ovate, petioled, toothed. 



2. I. fulva, Nutt. (SPOTTED TOUCH-ME-NOT.) Flowers oranye-color, 

 t/tick/i/ s]>otl.rd icith reddish-brown ; sac longer than broad, acutely conical, taper- 

 ing into a stroiKjIi/ inflexed spur. Rills and shady moist places ; common, 

 especially southward. June -Sept. Plant 2 -4 high: the flowers loosely 

 panicled at the ends of the branches, hanging gracefully on then- slender nod- 

 ding stalks, the open mouth of the cornucopioe-shaped sepal upward. A variety 

 is occasionally found with spotless flowers, which differs from the I. Noli-tangere 

 of Europe chiefly in the more inflexed spur and smaller petals. 



I. BALSAMINA, L., is the BALSAM or Ladies' slipper of the garden. 

 Tnor-ioLUM MAJUS, the familiar NASTURTIUM of gardens, is the type of a 

 group intermediate between the Balsam and Geranium families and the next. 



ORDER 30. LIMNANTHACE^E. (LIMNANTIIES FAMILY.) 



Annual low herbs, witli pinnated alternate leaves without stipules, and reg- 

 ular 3 - 5-merous flowers : calyx valvate in the bud : stamens twice as many 

 as the petals: the one-seeded little fleshy fruits separate, but their styles united. 

 Consists of one 5-merous Californian genus (Limnanthes) with hand- 

 some flowers, sometimes cultivated in gardens, and the insignificant 



1. FL.CERKEA, Willd. FALSE MERMAID. 



Sepals 3. Petals 3, shorter than the calyx, oblong. Stamens 6, nearly hy- 

 pogynous. Ovaries 3, opposite the sepals, united only at the base ; the style 

 rising in the centre: stigmas 3. Fruit of 3 (or 1-2) rough ish fleshy achenia. 

 Seed anatropous, erect, filled by the large embryo with its hemispherical fleshy 

 cotyledons. A small and inconspicuous annual, with minute solitary flowers 

 on axillary peduncles. (Named after Floerke, a German botanist.) 



1 . F. proscrpinacoidcs, Willd. Marshes and river-banks, W. New- 

 England to Wisconsin and Kentucky. April -June. Leaflets 3-5, lanceo- 

 late, sometimes 2 - 3-cleft. Taste slightly pungent. 



* 



ORDER 31. RUTACE^E. (RuE FAMILY.) 



Plants tvith simple or compound leaves, dotted with pellucid ylands, abound- 

 ing tri/h a punyent or bitter-aromatic acrid volatile oil, Iif/jim/i/nons rct/iJar 

 3 - 5-nwrous Jl ;/</>, i/tc xtamcns as many or twice as many as the sepals; tlie 



