A small family, widely distributed; perennial herbs, with creeping
rootstocks, growing in water or marshes; the leaves smooth, alternate,
or from the root; the flowers perfect, regular, in clusters; the calyx
five-lobed; the corolla more or less funnel-form with five lobes or
teeth; the stamens five, on the corolla and alternate with its lobes;
the ovary superior, or partly so, with one cell; the fruit usually an
oval capsule, with a few flattish, smooth seeds.
[Sidenote: =Buck-bean=
_Menyánthes trifoliàta_
=White
Spring, summer
Northwest=]
This is the only kind, a handsome plant, eight or ten inches tall,
with a stout, yellowish-green stem and rich green leaves, with long,
sheathing leaf-stalks and three leaflets, with toothless or somewhat
scalloped edges. The flowers are about half an inch long, with a
white corolla, tinged with pink or lilac, the spreading lobes covered
with white hairs, with black and yellow, swinging anthers and a green
pistil, with a two-lipped stigma. There are from ten to twenty flowers
in each cluster and the effect is charming, suggesting a bunch of
little fringed lilies. This grows in northern bogs across the continent
and also in Europe and Asia. It used to be found around San Francisco,
but is now extinct.