MEADOW-FOAM FAMILY. Limnanthaceae. 
MILKWORT FAMILY. Polygalaceae. 
Not a very large family, widely distributed; ours are 
herbs, sometimes shrubby, with no stipules; flowers perfect, 
irregular, resembling those of the Pea Family, but not like 
them in structure; sepals five, the two at the sides large 
and colored, like “‘wings,’’ the upper sepal forming a 
“keel”; petals three, more or less united into a tube; 
stamens usually eight and united; ovary superior, two- 
celled, with a broad, curved stigma. 
There are many kinds of Polygala. 
A rather attractive little plant, three to 
California eight inches tall, with smooth leaves and 
“ae a many slender, smooth, woody, stems, 
iulesireddé springing from slender rootstocks. The 
Pink purplish-pink flowers become deeper in 
Spring,summer color as they fade and are quaint in form, 
pan eos over half an inch long, with pink “wings” 
and yellowish ‘‘keel,”” the petals downy inside and the 
middle one curving over to form a hood, in which the 
stamens and style are concealed. This plant has the odd 
habit of bearing another sort of flower near the root, 
maturing most of the seed, but without petals, and grows 
on dry, shady hillsides in the Coast Ranges. 
MEADOW FOAM FAMILY. Limnanthaceae. 
A very small family, all North American, included in 
the Geranium Family by some botanists; smooth herbs, of 
wet places, with bitter juice; leaves alternate, lobed and 
cut, without stipules; flowers perfect; sepals and petals 
two to five; stamens twice as many as the petals; ovary 
superior, the five lobes becoming five nutlets; style one. 
There are several kinds of Floerkea; sepals and petals 
three to five; five, small glands on the receptacle, alter- 
nating with the sepals; style two- to five-cleft. 
wigan A charming plant, often covering the 
Floérkea Douglésii Meadows with drifts of creamy bloom. 
(Limnanthes) The stems are smooth, succulent, brittle 
White, yellow and branching, from six to twelve inches 
eer. tall; the delicate flowers. over an inch across, 
iene the petals hairy at base, sometimes pinkish, 
but usually white and yellow. 
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