A small family; ours are perennial astringent herbs, with alternate,
toothless leaves, with leaf-stalks; flowers perfect, with bracts, in
a dense, terminal spike, without calyx or corolla; stamens generally
three or six; ovary with one to five stigmas; fruit a capsule or berry.
There are two kinds of Anemopsis.
[Sidenote: =Yerba Mansa=
_Anemópsis Califórnica_
=White
Spring
Cal., Ariz.=]
This plant bears several, large, cream-white flowers, which at the
first glance appear to have from five to eight petals and a long,
projecting knob in the center, but what appears to be a corolla is in
reality an involucre, about an inch and a half across, and surrounding
the base of a long, conical spike of numerous, small, greenish flowers.
These are half-sunk in the fleshy substance of the spike and have
no sepals or petals, but each has a small, white bract at its base,
so that the spike appears to be covered with scales symmetrically
arranged. The flower has from six to eight stamens on the base of
the ovary and from three to four stigmas. The ovaries, which are
superior, form small pods, opening at the top when ripe, so that in
the end the spike is neatly pitted with holes. The rather thick,
hollow, reddish stems are from six inches to two feet tall, covered
with hair, and the smooth, light-green leaves, from two to ten inches
long, are mostly from the root, with leaf-stalks which broaden at the
base and partly sheathe the stem. The creeping rootstocks are peppery
and acrid, used medicinally, and considered exceedingly valuable by
Spanish-Californians. These pretty, odd-looking plants grow in alkaline
or salty swamps in the south. The name is from the Greek meaning
"anemone" and "appearance," but the flowers do not look very much like
Anemones.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Yerba mansa--Anemopsis Californica.]
[Illustration]