Menyanthes
(ancient name, from men, a month, and anthos, a flower; in allusion to the duration of the flower). Buckbean. ORD. Gentianeae. A genus (two species) of very ornamental hardy perennial aquatics, natives of Arctic Europe, North Asia, North-west India, and North America. Flowers white or bluish, at the tops of the scapes, or in long, terminal, leafless, shortly racemose peduncles; corolla shortly funnel-shaped. Leaves alternate at base of stem, either trifoliolate or reniform, on long petioles, with scarious sheathing bases. Rootstocks long, thickish, creeping. The species are easily established, in shallow water or boggy situations, by divisions of the roots. M. Crista-galli (cock's-comb). fl. in a simple or forked cyme; corolla white; tube not longer than the calyx; lobes naked, but with a medial crest. Spring. l. reniform and sometimes emarginate, crenate, 2in. to 4in. wide; petioles and scape at length slender, and 1ft. to 2ft. high. North America. SYN. Villarsia Cristagalli.
M. trifoliata (three-leaved). Bogbean; common Buckbean; Marsh Trefoil. fl. white inside and reddish outside; anthers purplish, with the tips curved inwards; peduncles axillary. Spring. l. trifoliolate; leaflets ovate, obtuse. Stem procumbent, and covered by the sheaths of the leaves. Northern hemisphere (Britain). (Sy. En. B. 920.)