74 LIMNANTHACE^E. (LIMNANTHES FAMILY.) 



the larger ones, as described above, which seldom ripen seeds, and very smaU 

 ones, which are fertilized early in the bud, when the floral envelopes never ex- 

 pand, nor grow to their full size, but are forced off by the growing pod and car- 

 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. pallida, Nutt. (PALE TOUCH-ME-NOT.) Flowers pale yellow, spar- 

 ingly 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 

 the next, with larger flowers. Leaves ovate, petioled, toothed. 



2. I. fulva., Nutt. (SPOTTED TOUCH-ME-NOT.) Flowers orange-col<r, 

 thickly spotted with reddish-brown ; sac longer than broad, acutely conical, taper- 

 ing into a strongly 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 their slender nod- 

 ding stalks, the open mouth of the cornucopias-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. 

 TROP.ZEOLUM MAJUS, the familiar NASTURTIUM of gardens, is the type of a 

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



ORDER 30. LJMNANTHACE^E. (LIMNANTHES FAMILY.) 



Annual low herbs, with 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. FLCERKEA, 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) roughish 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 . JF. proserpiliacoides, 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 with simple or compound leaves, dotted with pellucid glands, abound- 

 ing with a pungent or bitter-aromatic acrid volatile oil, hypogynous regular 

 &- 5-merous flowers, the stamens as many or twice as many as the sepals; the 



