LAURACEAE (LAUREL FAMILY) 67 



bractlets at the base. The petals are replaced by 6 somewhat 

 kidney-shaped bodies, much smaller than the sepals, and one at 

 the base of each sepal. The ovary bursts soon after flowering, 

 due to the pressure of the 2 enlarging 

 seeds. The spherical seeds stand 

 naked on their thick stalks, the fleshy 

 integment turning blue. (Named 

 from kaulos, stem, and phullon, leaf.) 



C. thalictroides, BLUE COHOSH. The 

 flowers appear while the leaf is yet small. 

 The stems are 3-7.5 dm. high. The leaf- 

 lets are obovate and 2-3 lobed. Deep rich 

 WOOds. April-May. Caulophyllum thalictroides, 



Blue cohosh. 



BERBERIS 



Shrubs with yellow wood and inner bark, yellow flowers in 

 drooping racemes, sour berries, and 1-9 foliolate leaves. 



B. vulgaris, BARBERRY. Sepals 6, roundish, with 2-6 bractlets out- 

 side. Petals 6, obovate, having 2 glandular spots inside. Stamens 

 6. Stigma circular and .depressed. The fruit a i-few seeded berry. 

 The leaves of the fresh shoots are scattered and are mostly reduced 

 to spines, from the axils of which fascicles of leaves arise the next 

 season, as well as the drooping many-flowered racemes. The berries 

 are ellipsoid and scarlet. Thickets and waste ground. May and June. 

 Introduced from Europe. 



LAURACEAE (LAUREL FAMILY) 



Aromatic trees or shrubs, with alternate simple leaves, mostly 

 marked with minute dots. The flowers have a regular calyx of 

 4 or 6 colored sepals, and are clustered. 



SASSAFRAS 



Trees with spicy aromatic bark and entire or lobed leaves. The 

 flowers are greenish-yellow, and naked. They appear with the 

 leaves in clustered racemes. Dioecious. The staminate flowers 

 have 9 stamens inserted on the base of the calyx in three rows. 



