PHLOX FAMILY 



This entire floral group seems to have acquired a choice collec- 

 tion of misfitting and foolish names. To begin with, Polemonium 

 is referred in the books to the Greek polemos, war, a name utterly 

 without significance. Our pretty wildling is called reptans, creep- 

 ing; a thing it never does. The Blue Polemonium rejoices in the 

 two names of Jacob's-ladder and Charity; and the genus itself is 

 known in the botanies as the Greek Valerian. Few groups have 

 suffered so severely at the hands of their friends. 



37° 



