FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 225 
far the most of which are found in the western United States. They 
have clustered, usually handsome, flowers, the calyx and corolla 5-cleft 
or 5-parted, the lobes twisted or contorted. Stamens 5, the anthers ver-' 
satile (attached by the middle); ovary 3-celled, with 3 stigmas, becoming 
in fruit a 3-valved capsule. The seeds are peculiar, in some cases being 
winged, and in others enveloped in mucilage and having the property 
of emitting spiral tubes when wetted. 
This family includes the large genus Phlox, which affords so many 
ornamental annuals and perennials to our flower beds; scarcely less 
pleasing are the Gilias, of which there is an enormous number of species 
in California. Polemonium is represented most abundantly in Alaska 
Fig. 195. Eastern Polemonium, or Jacob’s Ladder ( Polemonium Vanbruntiae). 
One-half natural size. Original. 
and the Rocky Mountains, but there are one or two eastern species (Fig. 
195). Another familiar garden plant is the exotic climbing vine, Cobwa 
scandens. The Polemoniums, as a rule, possess medicinal properties. 
