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. nymphaeoides, 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 deeply 

 cordate, like those of a Waterlily on a small scale. Peduncles as long 

 as the leafstalks, each with a single, rather large, yellow flower. L, 

 peltatum, Gmel., Villarsia reniformis, Linn. 



In ponds and still waters, throughout Europe and central and Eussian 

 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. 



LI. POLEMONIACEJE. 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 Phloxes, 

 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. cseruleum, 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, 1^ 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, 



