1. A. occidentàlis, Pursh. Smoothish annual; scapes diffuse (2–4´ high), many-flowered; leaves and leaflets of the involucre oblong-ovate, entire, sessile; calyx-lobes leafy, triangular-lanceolate, longer than the (white) corolla.—Bare hills, from Minn. to Ill. and Ark., and west to the mountains.
5. TRIENTÀLIS, L. Chickweed-Wintergreen.
Calyx mostly 7-parted; the divisions linear-lanceolate, pointed. Corolla mostly 7-parted, spreading, flat, without tube. Filaments slender, united in a ring at the base; anthers oblong, revolute after flowering. Capsule few-seeded.—Low and smooth perennials, with simple erect stems, bearing a few alternate usually minute and scale-like leaves below, and a whorl of thin veiny leaves at the summit. Peduncles one or more, very slender, bearing a delicate white and star-shaped flower. (A Latin name, meaning the third part of a foot, alluding to the height of the plant.)
1. T. Americàna, Pursh. (Star-flower.) Spreading by very slender elongated rootstocks; leaves elongated-lanceolate, tapering to both ends; petals finely pointed.—Damp cold woods, from Lab. to Minn., south to N. Ind., and the mountains of Va. May.—Rootstocks often 1–2° long (Hitchings).
Calyx 5-parted. Corolla rotate, with no proper tube, deeply 5-parted, the sinuses rounded; divisions ovate, cuspidate-pointed, erose-denticulate above, each separately involute around its stamen. Filaments distinct or nearly so on the ring at base of corolla, alternating with 5 subulate staminodia; anthers linear. Capsule 10–20-seeded.—Leafy-stemmed perennials, glabrous except the ciliate petioles, not punctate, the leaves all opposite, but mostly in seeming whorls on the flowering branches. Peduncles slender, axillary, bearing yellow flowers. (From στεῖρος, sterile, and νῆμα, thread, referring to the staminodia.)
1. S. ciliàtum, Raf. Stem erect (2–4° high); leaves lanceolate-ovate (2–6´ long), tapering to an acute point, rounded or heart-shaped at base, all on long and fringed petioles; corolla longer than the calyx. (Lysimachia ciliata, L.)—Low grounds and thickets, common. July.
2. S. radìcans, Gray. Stem slender, soon reclined, the elongated branches often rooting in the mud; leaves ovate-lanceolate, mostly rounded at base, on slender petioles; corolla about the length of the calyx. (Lysimachia radicans, Hook.)—Swampy river-banks, W. Va. to Ark. and La.—Leaves and flowers nearly one half smaller than in the last.
3. S. lanceolàtum, Gray. Stem erect (10´–2° high); leaves lanceolate, varying to oblong and linear, narrowed into a short margined petiole or tapering base, or the lowest short and broad on long petioles. (Lysimachia lanceolata, Walt.)—Low grounds and thickets, Ont. to Fla., Dak., and Tex. Polymorphous; the extremes are var. hýbridum, Gray, with cauline leaves from oblong to broadly linear, common north and west,—and var. angustifòlium, Gray, with stems more branched, a span to 2° high, and the cauline leaves linear, acute at both ends, more sessile, 1–2´´ broad; mainly southward.
4. S. longifòlium, Gray. Stem erect, 4-angled, slender (1–3° high), often branched below; stem-leaves sessile, narrowly linear, elongated (2–4´ long, 2–3´´ wide), smooth and shining, rather rigid, obtuse, the margins often a little revolute, the veins obscure; the lowest oblong or spatulate; corolla (8–9´´ broad) longer than the calyx, the lobes conspicuously pointed. (Lysimachia longifolia, Pursh.)—Banks of streams, from western N. Y. to Va., Minn., and Iowa. July–Sept.