_Buckbean Family_
In our species a smooth marsh herb, with creeping rootstock,
long-petioled, 3-foliate leaves and white or purplish flowers, in
racemes on long lateral scapes.
[Sidenote: =Menyanthes trifoliata= L. _Buckbean._]
Creeping rootstocks sometimes a foot long marked by the scars of
bases of former petioles. Leaves 3-foliate, petioles sheathing at the
base, 2—10 inches long; leaflets oblong or obovate, entire, obtuse
at the apex, narrowed to the sessile base, 1½—3 inches long. Flowers
half an inch long, pure white or purplish in 10—20-flowered racemes
on scape-like naked peduncles; calyx shorter than the corolla which
is bearded with white hairs within, giving the flower a feathery
appearance.
In open marshes throughout the region, local in distribution; flowering
in May and early June.