A very small family, all North American, included in the Geranium
Family by some botanists; smooth herbs, of wet places, with bitter
juice; leaves alternate, lobed and cut, without stipules; flowers
perfect; sepals and petals two to five; stamens twice as many as the
petals; ovary superior, the five lobes becoming five nutlets; style one.
There are several kinds of Floerkea; sepals and petals three to five;
five, small glands on the receptacle, alternating with the sepals;
style two- to five-cleft.
[Sidenote: =Meadow Foam=
_Floérkea Douglásii (Limnanthes)_
=White, yellow
Spring
Cal., Oreg.=]
A charming plant, often covering the meadows with drifts of creamy
bloom. The stems are smooth, succulent, brittle and branching, from six
to twelve inches tall; the delicate flowers over an inch across, the
petals hairy at base, sometimes pinkish, but usually white and yellow.
[Illustration: Meadow Foam--Floerkea Douglasii.