POLEMOHIUM 



POLEMONIUM. GREEK VALERIAN 



Polembnium reptans. 



A smooth perennial with weak stems and alternate pinnate leaves, 

 found in moist lands from New York to Minnesota and southward. 

 May. 



Stem. — Weak and spreading, but not creeping as the name suggests; 

 six to twelve inches high. 



Leaves. — Alternate, pinnately compound; leaflets five to fifteen, 

 ovate-lanceolate, entire. 



Flowers. — Pale blue-violet, rarely white ; in loose few-flowered clusters. 



Calyx. — Bell-shaped, five-lobed. 



Corolla. — Open bell-shaped, five-lobed, lobes rounded. 



Stamens. — Five, inserted equally on the corolla-tube, declined, hairy 

 at base, not protruding beyond the corolla. 



Ovary. — Three-celled; style slender; stigma three-cleft. 



Capsule. — Three-celled. 



This wild Polemonium is a very charming plant and throughout 

 the Middle West is frequently found in gardens. The commonly 

 cultivated Polemonium, however, is 

 another species, cmrideum, of more 

 robust habit and more abundant 

 bloom. Both flower in May and 

 adorn equally the border or the 

 rock-garden. 



Polemonium cmrideum, the Blue 

 Polemonium, is a plant of northern 

 range and credited in the books to 



three continents, Europe, Asia, and Blue Polemonium. Polembnium 

 A . >-t . 1 ■ 1 1 1 cterideum 



America. Certainly, it has long been 



cultivated in English gardens and came to us over sea instead of 



from our own fields. 



Polemonium hiimile, or Polemonium Richardsomi, as it appears 

 in trade catalogues, is an Alpine species, a low plant, bearing in 

 July a profusion of pale-blue bell-shaped flowers with golden 

 anthers. It is highly recommended for the rock-garden. 



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