128 GENTIANACE^. Memjanthes. 



12. MENYANTHES, Tourn. Buckbean. (Ancient name, from fxi]v, 

 month, and avdog, flower, some say from its flowering for about that time.) — Bog- 

 perennials (of the cooler parts of the northern hemisphere).; with long and 

 thickish creeping rootstocks, bearing either trifoliolate or reniform leaves on long 

 petioles, with scarious sheathing base, and a naked erect several-many-flowered 

 scape ; fl. in spi'ing or early summer. — Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 819. 



M. trifoliata, L. Petioles and scape a span or two high, stout: leaf divided into 3 oval 

 or oblong-obovate pinnately veined entire or repand leaflets: flowers racemose: corolla 

 white or tinged with rose; the tube longer than the calyx; the upper surface of the lobes 

 copiously fimbriate-bearded. — Lam. 111. t. 100 ; Fl. Dan. t. 541 ; Bigel. Med. t. 46 ; Reichenb. 

 Ic. Germ. t. 1043. — Bogs, Newfoundland and Labrador to Penn., Ohio, and northward: 

 also Rocky Mountains to California and Aleutian Islands. (Japan to Eu. and Greenland.) 



M. Crista-galli, Menzies. Petioles and scape at length slender and a foot or two high : 

 leaf reniform and sometimes emarginate, crenate! (2 to 4 inches wide) : flowers in a simple 

 or 1-2-forked cyme : corolla white ; its tube not longer than the calyx ; the lobes naked 

 but with a medial crest. — Hook. Bot. Misc. i. 45, t. 24. \ullarsia Crista-galli, Griseb. 1. c. — 

 Marshy ground, coast of Br. Columbia to Alaska, Menzies, Meiiens, &c. 



13. LIMNANTHEMUM, Gmelin. Floating Heaht. (From %'jj, 

 marsh or pool, and uvdEfior, blossom.) — Perennial fibrous-rooted water-plants (of 

 temperate and tropical regions) ; with proliferous or stoloniferous growth ; the 

 leaves orbicular or ovate and deeply cordate, entire or repand, floating; the flowers 

 in our species as if umbellate-fascicled on the petiole, produced all summer, some- 

 times polygamous. Stolons sometimes tuberiferous. 



Li. lacunosutn, Griseb. Petioles and stolons filiform, much elongated: leaves orbic- 

 ular-cordate, an inch or two long, mostly quite entire : umbel of flowers borne near to the 

 base of the leaf, often accompanied by a fascicle of thickened and short spur-like rootlets : 

 corolla white, a third to half inch in diameter; its broadly oval lobes naked (except a 

 crest-like yellowish gland at base), twice the length of the lanceolate calyx-lobes : style 

 none: seeds numerous, smooth and even. — Gent. 347, & in DC. Prodr. ix. 141, in part; 

 Gray, Man. ed. 1, 363, ed. 5, 390. Villarsia lacmosa, Vent. Choix, 9 ; Pursh, Fl. i. 139, excl. 

 syn. V. cordata. Ell. Sk. i. 230, a fitter name. — Shallow ponds, &c., Canada to Florida 

 and Louisiana. 



L. trachyspermum, Gray, l. c. Larger : petioles, &c., stouter : leaves cordate-orbicu- 

 lar, 2 to 6 inches in diameter, with margins sometimes repand, of thick texture, the dis- 

 colored lower surface reticulate-veined, spongy and pitted : umbel usually destitute of 

 thickened rootlets : expanded corolla three-fourths inch wide : style none : seeds roughened. 

 — L. lacunosum, var. australe, Griseb. Gent. 1. c. Anonymos aquatica, Walt. Car. 109. Villarsia 

 aquatica, Gmel. Syst. i. 447. V. trachysperma. Ell. 1. c. Menyanthes trachysperma, Michx. Fl. 

 i. 126. — Ponds and streams, Maryland (Canby) and Virginia to Florida and Texas. 



Order XCI. POLEMONTACE^. 



Herbaceous or rarely shrubby plants, with bland colorless juice, simple or di- 

 vided leaves and no stipules, perfect and regular 5-merous flowers except that 

 the free ovary is trimerous (3-celIed with placentae in the axis) ; the persistent 

 calyx imbricated, and the corolla dextrorsely convolute (and not plicate) iu the 

 bud ; the fruit a 3-celled loculicidal capsule, usually with a thick placental axis ; 

 the few or many seeds small, amphitropous or nearly anatropous, with a thin or 

 soft coat, commonly developing mucilage when wetted ; the embryo straight and 

 rather large in the axis of a fleshy or harder albumen, the cotyledons flat or 

 flattish and rather broad. Stamens on the corolla alternate with its lobes, distinct. 



