V tolaceae 255 
ELATINE WATER-WORT 
Glabrous or glabrate, aquatic or creeping. Leaves entire. Flowers minute, mainly 
solitary. Sepals 2—4, persistent, membranous, not veined. Petals in ours white or rose- 
colored or purplish. Styles or stigmas 2—4. Pod membranous, 2—4-valved, glabrous. 
Seeds longitudinally and transversely striate. (Gk. elate—fir; because some species have 
narrow fir-like leaves. ) 
A. Sepals and petals and carpels and stamens 2-3: seed nearly straight; petals rose- 
colored or purplish. 
B. Sepals and petals and stamens usually 3; seeds but little sculptured; leaves ob- 
lanceolate. | E. E. triandra Schk. 
BB. Sepals and petals and stamens usually 2; seeds distinctly sculptured; leaves obo- 
vate. W. E. E, americana Arn. 
AA. Sepals and petals and carpels 34; stamens 6 or 8: seeds curved into a hook 
or partial ring; petals white; leaves obovate. E. 
E. californica Gray - (California Water-wort) 
BERGIA 
Annual (ours), branching, erect (not ours) or ascending or prostrate, somewhat 
pubescent. Leaves in ours serrate, spatulate or obovate, 2.53.7 cm. long. Flower- 
parts in 5’s (ours), rarely in 4’s or 3’s. Sepals acute, slightly longer than the petals 
(ours). Petals white or whitish (ours). Pod crustaceous, ovoid, 5-valved. . Seeds 
longitudinally and transversely striate. (Honor of J. P. Bergius, a Swedish botanist.) 
Bs. B. texana Seub. 
VIOLACEAE Violet Family 
Herbs (ours) or shrubs. - Leaves alternate or opposite (not ours) or basal, simple, 
entire or lobed or laciniate, pinnately or palmately veined; stipules present. Flowers 
solitary or clustered, perfect, mosily irregular. Sepals 5, equal or unequal. Petals 5, hy- 
pogymous, imbricated in the bud. Anthers erect, connivent in a ring or cyngenesious, ses- 
sile or on short filaments. Ovary |, |-celled; placentae 3, parietal; style stimple; stigma 
generally oblique. Capsule dehiscent by valves (ours) or berry-like. EEndosperm abund- 
ant. 
. VIOLA VIOLET 
Annual or perennial (ours). Leaves alternate or all basal, evergreen or deciduous. 
Flowers axillary or scapose, solitary or rarely 2 together, often of 2 kinds; early flowers 
petal-bearing, showy, often sterile, long-scaped or -peduncled; late flowers short-peduncled 
or on runners or stolons, producing many seeds, apetalous or cleistogamous. Sepals of 
the petal-bearing flowers nearly equal, somewhat eared at base. Petals spreading; the 
lower one large, spurred or saccate. Stamens 5, 2 spurred. Capsule dehiscent into 3 
valves. (The Latin name.) 
A. Leaves cleft or more deeply separated into lobes or divisions: stem present; petals yel- 
. low, the upper one brownish or purplish. 
B. Leaves once lobed or dissected into 5—-9 lobes or teeth; with creeping rhizomes. 
Ly; V. Icbata Benth. 
BB. Leaves 2——3 times dissected or lobed; lobes usually more than 9; without 
creeping rhizomes. 
C. Petals beardless, yellow or the upper one brownish. 

