GENTIAN FAMILY 



This is the plant, spoken of in the Preface, which has 

 not been found between Nantucket and Portsmouth, 

 Virginia. 



GENTIANACE^) GENTIAN FAMILY 



Menyanthes trifoliata, L. 



White or slightly Buckbean, Water Shamrock, 



reddish Bogbean, Moonflower, 



Marsh Trefoil, Bog Myrtle, 



May- July Bean Trefoil, Brook Bean, 



Water Trefoil, 



Menyanthes: the Greek name for a flower and a month, 

 some say because its flowering period is about that 

 length of time. 



Trifoliata: Latin for three-leaved. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: wet bogs. 



THE PLANT: from thick, scaly, underground stems, which 

 are sometimes one foot long, marked by the scars of bases 

 of former leaf-stems. 



THE LEAVES : alternate (this plant is one of the two excep- 

 tions to the rule that the leaves of this family are opposite) ; 

 palmately three-parted, the leaflets oblong or obovate; 

 obtuse at the apex; sometimes three inches long, usually 

 less; narrowed at the base; stemless; entire; pinnately- 

 veined; the (whole leaf) on long petioles (two inches tq 

 ten inches long) ; sheathing at the base. 



THE FLOWERS : ten to twenty in a raceme on a long leaf- 

 less stem; the pedicels short, with small bracts at the base. 

 The calyx shorter than the corolla, which is bearded 

 within with white hairs. 



THE FRUIT: a capsule. 



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