POLEMONIUM FAMILY 



POLEMONIACEAE 



GREEK VALERIAN. JACOB'S LADDER 



Polemonium reptans L. 



The Greek Valerian or Jacob's Ladder is another of the very 

 beautiful flowers for which the Polemonium family is noted, 

 and is easily grown in gardens. It is a perennial of open hilly 



woods from New York 

 to Minnesota and south 

 to Georgia and Kansas. 



The plant is smooth 

 or nearly so throughout. 

 The slender, much 

 branched stems are weak 

 and spreading, in 

 clump usually not more 

 than I foot high from a 

 short underground stem. 

 Leaflets of the alternate 

 compound leaves are 



Handsome light blue 

 flowers are produced in 

 large numbers from April 

 to June. The bell-shaped 

 calyx is green and 5- 

 lobed. The blue corolla 

 is also bell shaped and 

 has a spreading 5-lobed 

 limb. The 5 stamens 

 attached to the corolla 

 near the base of its tube 

 often do not extend beyond it. The filaments are somewhat hairy 

 at the base. The pistil consists of a 3-celled ovary, a long slender 

 style and 3 stigmas. The flowers are quite variable in size and 

 occasionally may be pink or white. Unlike P/;/o.v, the Greek 

 Valerian depends largely on bees instead ot butterflies tor polli- 

 nation of its flowers. 



The fruit is a dry capsule. There are usually 3 or 4 ovules in 

 each cell of the ovary but the mature capsule ordinarily con- 

 tains only 3 seeds. These are wingless or narrowly winged, and 

 somewhat mucilaginous when wet. 



254 



