RANUNCULACEAE. 



VOL. II. 



Family 31. RANUNCULACEAE Juss. Gen. 231. 1789. 

 CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



Annual or perennial herbs, or rarely climbing shrubs, with acrid sap. Leaves 

 alternate (except in Clematis), simple or compound. Stipules none, but the base 

 of the petiole often clasping or sheathing. Pubescence, when present, composed 

 of simple hairs. Sepals 3-15, generally caducous, often petal-like, imbricate, 

 except in Clematis. Petals about the same number (occasionally more), or want- 

 ing. Flowers regular or irregular. Stamens oo , hypogynous, their anthers innate. 

 Carpels oo or rarely solitary, i-celled, i-many-ovuled. Ovules anatropous. Fruit 

 achenes, follicles or berries. Seeds with endosperm. 



About 35 genera and noo species, distributed throughout the world; not abundant in the 

 tropics. 



* Carpels several-ovuled (i-2-ovuled in nos. i and 8); fruit a follicle or berry; sepals 

 imbricated in the bud. (HELLEBORKAE.) 



Flowers regular ; leaves palmately nerved or palmately compound. 

 Petals wanting. 



Carpels ripening into a head of red berries. i. Hydrastis. 



Carpels ripening into a head of dry follicles. 2. Caltha. 



Petals present, narrow or small, linear, flat. 3. Trollhts. 



Petals present, narrow or small, tubular, at least at the base. 



Sepals persistent ; stem tall, leafy. 4. Helleborns. 



Sepals deciduous ; stem scape-like, bearing one leaf. 5. Eranthis. 



Flowers regular ; leaves ternately or pinnately compound or decompound. 

 Petals not spurred. 



Low herbs with solitary or panicled flowers. 



Carpels and follicles stalked. 6. Coptis. 



Carpels and follicles sessile. 7. Isopyrum. 



Low shrub with racemose flowers, the fruits follicles. 8. Xantlwrrlii~ti. 



Tall erect herbs with racemose flowers. 



Fruit berries. 9. Actaea. 



Fruit follicles. 10. Cimicifuga. 



Petals prolonged backward into hollow spurs. u. Aquilegia. 



Flowers irregular. 



Posterior sepal spurred. 12. Delphinium. 



Posterior sepal hooked helmet-like. 13. Aconititm. 



** Carpels i-ovuled; fruit an achene. 



Sepals imbricated in the bud. (ANEMONEAE.) 



Flowers subtended by involucres remote from the calyx or close under it. 

 Styles short, glabrous or pubescent, or none. 



Involucre remote from the calyx ; styles short, subulate. 

 Involucre of 3 simple sessile leaves close under the flower. 

 Involucre of 3 compound sessile leaves ; leaflets stalked ; stigma sessile. 

 Styles elongated, densely plumose. 

 Flowers; not subtended by involucres. 



Small annual herbs ; leaves basal, linear ; sepals spurred. 

 Low or tall herbs, mostly with both basal and stem leaves ; sepals spurless. 

 Petals none ; leaves palmately lobed. 



Petals present, bearing a nectariferous pit at the base of the blade. 

 Achenes compressed, smooth, papillose or spiny ; flowers yellow. 

 Achenes transversely wrinkled ; flowers white. 

 Achenes swollen, smooth ; sepals 3 ; petals mostly 8. 

 Achenes compressed or terete, longitudinally nerved. 

 Petals none ; leaves ternately decompound. 

 Petals present, with no nectar-bearing pit ; leaves dissected. 

 Sepals valvate in the bud; leaves opposite. (CLEMATIDEAE.) 

 Petals none. 



Sepals and stamens spreading ; flowers panicled. 

 Sepals and stamens erect or ascending ; flowers mostly solitary. 

 Petals present, small, spatulate. 



14. Anemone. 



15. Hepatica. 



1 6. Syndesmon. 



17. Pulsatilla. 



1 8. Myosurus. 



19. Trautvettaria. 



20. Ranunculus. 



21. Batrachium. 



22. Ficaria. 



23. Halerpestes. 



24. Thalictrum. 



25. Adonis. 



26. Clematis. 



27. Viorna. 



28. Atragene. 



i. HYDRASTIS Ellis; L. Syst. Ed. 10, 1088. 1759. 



Erect perennial pubescent herbs, with palmately lobed reniform leaves, and small solitary 

 greenish-white flowers. Sepals 3, petaloid, falling away at anthesis. Petals none. Stamens 

 numerous. Carpels o, each bearing two ovules near the middle, and in fruit forming a head 

 of i-2-seeded crimson berries, somewhat resembling a raspberry; stigma flat. [Greek, water- 

 acting, from its supposed drastic properties.] 



Two known species, the typical one of eastern North America, the other Japanese. 



