60 KEY TO THE SPECIES 



2. Androsace septentrionalis L. (Northern Androsacb). Leaves in a 

 close rosette, oblanceolate, with a few teeth near the apex ; scapes several, slender ; 

 the pedicels sub-equal, short at first but in fruit spreading, 5-10 cm. long and nearly 

 as long as the scape ; the white petals surpassing the green teeth of the calyx. 

 Woods : in the mountains. 



3. Androsace capillarxs Greene (Hair-stemmed Androsacb). Perennial 6-12 

 cm. high ; scapes numerous from the rosette of dentate, ovate-lanceolate leaves, 

 filiform ; flowers minute, numerous, on capillary pedicels. Boggy margins of 

 streams. 



3. DODECATHEON (American Cowslip. Shooting-star) 



Smooth herbs with fibrous roots, a basal cluster of oblong or spatulate leaves, 

 a single naked stem bearing an umbel of showy flowers nodding on slender stalks, 

 deeply 5-cleft calyx with reflexed divisions, corolla with very short tube and long 

 and narrow reflexed divisions, and anthers approximate in a slender cone. 



1. Dodecatheon paiiciflorum (Durand) Greene (Bog Shooting-star). Gla- 

 brous, leaves sub-erect ; segments of corolla lilac-purple, the short everted tube 

 yellow, a scalloped ring of purple between the base of the segments and the stamen 

 tube; anthers yellow; capsule terete, opening by 5 short teeth. Wet alkaline 

 meadows and swamps. 



4. STEIRONEMA (Loosestrife) 



Glabrous perennials with opposite leaves (apparently whorled on the branches) 

 and large yellow flowers with 5 fertile and 5 sterile stamens. 



1. Steironema ciliatiim (L.) Raf. (Fringed Loosestrife). Leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate, with short, ciliate petioles ; flowers nodding on long slender peduncles ; 

 tube of corolla very short, the segments erose and usually cuspidate. 



5. GLAUX 



Perennial from rhizomes ; with low, simple or branched stems, small, succu- 

 lent leaves, axillary pink or white flowers (without corolla), 5 stamens alternate 

 with the calyx-lobes and a glandular ovary. 



1. Glaux maritima L. (Glaux. Saltwort). From 5-10 cm. high, leaves 

 sessile, oblong or narrow ; flowers nearly sessile in the axils, 3-4 mm. broad ; the 

 calyx-lobes oval. 



LI. GENTIANACEiE (Gentian Family) 



Glabrous herbs with bitter juice, opposite simple leaves, 

 regular flowers convolute in the bud, stamens as many as the 

 lobes of the corolla, 1-celled ovary with 2 parietal placentae and 

 many-seeded capsule. 



1. Gentiana. Low herbs, with funnel-form or campanulate corollas without 

 nectariferous pits or glands. 



3. Frasera. Stout and tall, with rotate corolla bearing a pair of approximate 

 fringing glands at the base of the lobes. 



