302 Logani&cea Spigelia. 



1. SPIGELTA. 



Herbs with the flowers in one -sided spikes. Corolla long, 

 tubular, with 5 small nearly erect teeth at the top. Stamens 

 5. Style jointed near the middle. Fruit composed of two 

 carpels, finally separating and bursting down the back, few- 

 seeded. This is exclusively an American genus, embracing 

 about thirty species, mostly from the warmer and tropical 

 parts. 



1. S. Marildndica. Worm-grass or Pink-root. A hand- 

 some herbaceous plant usually growing about a foot high. 

 Leaves sessile, ovate-lanceolate, glabrous. Flower-spike ter- 

 minating the simple stems, 4- to 8-flowered, the lowermost 

 opening first. Flowers crimson without, bright yellow within, 

 about 1^ inch long, produced in Summer. 



ORDER LXXI. -GENTIAN ACE JE. 



Annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, usually erect and gla- 

 brous. Leaves simple, entire, opposite or whorled (except in 

 Menydnthes, where they are alternate and trifoliolate ; and 

 alternate and floating in Limndnthemum), ex stipulate, often 

 strongly nerved. Flowers regular, bisexual, solitary or in 

 dichotomous or trichotomous cymes. Calyx inferior, 4- to 8- 

 lobed ; lobes valvate or contorted in bud. Corolla hypogynous, 

 often persistent, rotate, funnel-shaped or campanulate, 4- to 8- 

 lobed ; lobes mostly contorted in bud. Stamens 4 to 8, inserted 

 upon the corolla-tube ; filaments free. Capsule 1- or partially 

 2-celled, containing many seeds attached to 2 opposite parietal 

 placentas. Seeds small, albuminous. This order numbers 

 about 60 genera and 450 species, chiefly from temperate and 

 mountainous regions. Several of our native species are very 

 beautiful, and a few of them merit introduction into large 

 gardens. The Bog-Bean, Menydnthes trifoliata^ is a hand- 

 some plant for marshy bogs. It has trifoliate leaves and 

 radical scapes of white or pink fringed flowers about a foot 

 high. Limndnthemum nymphceoldes is a rare aquatic plant 

 with small orbicular floating leaves and bright yellow umbel- 

 late flowers about 1 inch in diameter. The Yellow Wort, 

 Chlora perfolidta, is a glaucous annual growing a foot or more 



