EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. Onageace&. 



EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. Onagracece. 



Herbs, or sometimes shrubs. The perfect flowers 

 commonly with four petals and four sepals (rarely 2-6), 

 and with as many or twice as many stamens ; the 

 stigma with 2-4 lobes. Fertilized by moths, butterflies, 

 and bees. 



A nearly smooth herb with many 

 Ludwigia branches, and lance-shaped, toothless, op- 



alternifolia posite-growing leaves which taper to a 

 Yellow point at either end. The solitary light 



June- yellow, four-petaled flowers, about J inch 



September , 



broad, with sepals nearly as long as the 



petals. The seed-capsule is four-sided and wing-mar- 

 gined, rounded at the base ; the seeds eventually become 

 loose and rattle about when the plant is shaken. 2-3 

 feet high. Common in swamps, from Mass., to north- 

 ern N. Y., south, and west to Mich, and Kan. 



A less showy species with very narrow 

 Ludwigia , / , . 



polycarpa lance-shaped leaves, and tiny mconspicu- 



Green ous, stemless flowers whose rudimentary 



July- petals are pate green. The flowers grow 



September at the j unct i on of leaf-stem with plant- 

 stem. The four-sided, top-shaped seed-capsule is fur- 

 nished at the base with linear or awl-shaped leaflets. 

 1-3 feet high. In swamps from Mass, southwest to Ky., 

 and west to Minn, and E. Kan. 



A common uninteresting aquatic species 

 Purslane found in swamps and ditches. The tiny 



Ludwigia inconspicuous flowers without petals, or, 



palustris when the plant grows out of water, with 



Pale reddish verv sma i]_ ru ddy ones. The lance-shaped, 

 September opposite-growing, slender-stemmed leaves 

 (with the flowers growing at their bases) 

 an inch long or less. The elongated capsule indistinctly 

 four-sided. Stems 4-12 inches long, creeping or float- 

 ing. Shallow marshes, and muddy ditches everywhere* 

 Named for C. G. Ludwig, a German botanist. 



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