CCXX.— THE BUCKBEAN. 
Menyanthes trifoliata Linne. 
T HE Sub-Family Menyanthoide a is distinguished from the Gentianoide<e by 
having scattered leaves and by the aestivation of the corolla, the corolla-lobes 
having their margins induplicate or rolled inwards and then meeting in a valvate 
manner, i.e. without any overlapping. It includes the two genera Menyanthes and 
Nymphoides , each of which is represented in Britain by a single species. Menyanthes 
seems, in fact, to be a monotypic genus, the most striking feature of which is 
certainly its trefoil leaf. It is widely distributed throughout Europe and in parts of 
Asia and North America ; but seems almost as invariable as it is isolated systemati- 
cally. The name Menyanthes , used by Theophrastus, is supposed to be derived from 
the Greek /juju, men, a month, and avOos, anthos , a flower, and to refer to the 
duration of individual blossoms ; but was probably first used for some other plant. 
The Buckbean ( Menyanthes trifoliata Linne) is a perennial, with a dark-coloured, 
stout rhizome, which creeps in the mud and sends out thick adventitious roots with 
no root-hairs. This rhizome, like those of the Water-lilies, is filled with a store of 
starch, which has been used in Lapland as meal in times of scarcity. The ascending 
fleshy branches have numerous short internodes and rise but little above the mud or 
water in which the plant grows. We have known the stems so matted together as 
to form a layer of peat more than a foot thick over the surface of water on which a 
man could walk, though it shook for some yards round. The ternate leaves have 
thick round petioles with sheathing membranous bases, and each obovate leaflet has 
a thick midrib and a wavy margin. 
While the habitat of the plant and the form of its leaves fully justify the name 
Trifolium paludosum and the translation Marsh Trefoil, which we have in Gerard, and 
the French equivalents Tr'efle des marais and Tr'efle d'eau, the texture of the leaves 
naturally suggested the comparison with the Broad-bean, which is embodied in the 
other names of the plant. In these, however, we have probably instances of 
mistaken etymological emendation. It has naturally been thought that Buckbean 
might be only a corruption of Bog-bean, a name by which the plant is now often 
known ; but, as Dr. Prior points out, in all the old herbals it is Buckes-beane ; the 
German name is Bocksbohne, and the Dutch Bocksboonen ; and these names mean 
that the plant was considered a remedy for the “ scharbock ” or scurvy, that word 
being itself a corruption of the Latin scorbutus. 
The comparatively coarse aspect of the foliage is but a foil, however, for the 
fairy-like delicacy of the blossom. Given off from the stem opposite a leaf, a stout 
terete peduncle bears a bracteate raceme of numerous beautiful flowers on short 
spreading pedicels. They each have five blunt, short segments to the calyx ; while 
the funnel-shaped corolla has five long recurved fleshy lobes, delicately tinged with 
pink externally but pure white within, and fringed with long lace-like white hairs. 
