Polem6?iium.'] 



LYII. POLEMONIACE^. 



279 



Marshy places, boggy ground, &c., frequent. %, 5 — 7, — Roots 

 densely creeping and so matted as often to render the boggy ground 

 firm where the plant grows. Leaves ternate, stalked : leaflets obovate, 

 obscurely toothed. The base of the leaf is sheathing, whence arises 

 a flower-stalk, supporting a compound raceme or thyrsus, of many white 

 flowers, tipped externally with red and beautifully fringed with white 

 filaments within. 



6. V11.1.ARSIA Vent. Villarsia. 



Cat 5-partite. Cor. rotate or funnel-shaped, thin and mem- 

 branous, the limb often ciliated. Stam. 5, Caps. 1 -celled, 

 indehiscent (or 2-valved, the seeds attached to the margins of 

 the valves). — IN'amed in compliment to M. de Villars^ author 

 0? Flore de DaupJdnL 



1. V. nymphceoides Yent. (NympTi(2a-lihe F.) ; leaves orbi- 

 cular-cordate floating, peduncles 

 corollas ciliated. 



airo-reorate 



single-flowered, 



Menyanthes i. ; E. B. t. 217. 



Rare, in Vivers and still waters. In the Thames. Abundant in 

 the canal near Downham Market and Wisbeach. In Yorkshire. It. 



A beautiful plant, easy of cultivation, and difficult to be eradi- 

 Flower large, yellow, curiously plaited. The canals in Holland 



7, 8, 

 cated. 



are in some parts covered with this plant, which has quite a different 

 hahit from the true Menyanthes> Stigma 5-cleft. Mr, Brown first 

 observed that, in all the aquatic species of this genus, the capsule is 

 valveless; 2-valved in the others: hence Grisebach has divided it into 

 two genera, Leiantkemumy and Villarsia : our British species belongs 

 to the former. 



Ord. LVII. POLEMONIACEiE Juss. 



Calyx of 5 divisions, persistent, sometimes irregular. Corolla 

 regular, 5-lobed. Stamens 5, from the tube of the corolla. 

 Omr?/ single, 3-celled; ovules solitary in each cell or super- 



posed. Style simple. Stigmas 3. Capsule 3-celIed, 3-valved, 

 valves separating from the axis. Embryo straight. Albumen 



horny. 



Herbaceous 



com 



1. PoLEMONiUM ZzKTz. JacoVs Ladder. 



Cor, rotate. 



Stam. inserted upon the 5 teeth or valves which 



Named 



close the mouth of the corolla. Capsule many-seeded. 



from 7vo\ejjoQ^ war., according to Pliny, this plant having caused 



a war between two kings -vvho laid claim to its discovery ! 



1. P. ccBrideum L. (blue J,) ; leaves pinnated glabrous, 

 leaflets oblong-lanceolate. E. B. t. 14. 



Banks and bushy places, rare ; chiefly found in the North. In 

 Derbyshire and Yorkshire. About Queensferry, Arniston, Bonnington 

 and Delvine woods, Scotland, but probably introduced, Knockmaron 



