304 THE GENTIAN FAMILY. — [Limnanthemum. 
VI. LIMNANTHEMUM. LIMNANTH. 
Aquatic plants, with simple, broad, floating leaves and yellow flowers, 
Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla nearly rotate, 5-cleft, slightly fringed within at 
the base. Capsule bursting irregularly when ripe. 
A small genus, represented by some species or variety in the fresh 
waters of most of the temperate or tropical parts of the world. 
1. L. nympheoides, Link. (fig. 684). Common L.—The long stems 
creep and root at the base, branch and ascend to the surface of the 
water, bearing a single leaf at each upper branch, and a terminal float- — 
ing tuft of leaves and peduncles. Leaves on long stalks, and deepiy 
cordate, like those of a Waterlily on a small scale. Peduncles as long 
as the leafstalks, each with a single, rather large, yellow flower. JZ. 
peltatum, Gmel., Villarsia reniformis, Linn. 
In ponds and ‘still waters, throughout Europe and central and Russian 
Asia, except the extreme north ; extending eastward to China. Found 
in the eastern counties and Oxford, and scarcely even naturalised in 
Scotland and Ireland. Fl. summer. 
es oe 
LI. POLEMONIACEA. THE POLEMONIUM FAMILY. 
Herbs or rarely shrubs, the flowers usually in terminal 
cymes or panicles. Calyx 5-cleft or 5-toothed. Corolla re- 
gular, 5-lobed, the lobes twisted in the bud. Stamens 5, in- 
serted in the tube, and alternating with the lobes. Ovary 
single, 3-celled, with several or rarely a single seed in each 
cell, inserted in the inner angle. Style simple, with 3 stig- 
matic lobes. Capsule 3-celled, opening in 3 valves by slits 
opposite the middle of the cells. 
A small family spread over northern Asia and America, and western 
South America. Besides the European genus, it includes the Phlozes, 
Gilias, and Collomias of our flower-gardens, as well as the shrubby 
Cantuas and climbing Cobceas of our planthouses. 
I. POLEMONIUM. POLEMONIUM. 
Herbs, with pinnate leaves, and blue or white flowers in terminal 
corymbs. Calyx 5-lobed. Corolla with a very short tube, and a broad, 
open, 5-cleft limb. Stamens oblique, their filaments dilated into hairy 
scales. Capsule with several seeds. 
A small genus, extending all round the northern hemisphere, chiefly 
in high latitudes. 
1. P. ceeruleum, Linn. (fig. 685). Greek Valerian, Jacob’s Ladder.— 
Stock perennial, the radical leaves forming dense tufts, their common 
stalk 6 inches long or more, bearing from 11 to 21 lanceolate, entire 
segments or leaflets of a tender green. Stems erect, 14 to 2 feet high, 
bearing a few smaller pinnate leaves, and a rather showy terminal — 
corymb or panicle of flowers. ' 
Widely diffused over the higher northern latitudes of Europe, Asia, — 
