BARBERRY FAMILY 



When any plant occurs naturally in beds it is al- 

 ways of interest to inquire why. The chances are that 

 there is some agency at work more efficient than the 

 ordinary individual possesses. In the Mandrake's 

 case it comes out that each plant has a running under- 

 ground stem, straight and brown, throwing out at 

 intervals of a few inches rosettes of stout white roots 

 from which spring the leaf -bearing stems. These 

 beds in open fields are curiously circular and their 

 limits strictly defined. This is so marked a character- 

 istic that a mandrake-bed can be recognized almost 

 as far as it can be seen. In the open woods this law 

 seems not to hold, though everywhere the plant is 

 gregarious. 



JEFFERSONIA. TWINLEAF 



Jefersdnia diphylla 



Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson. 



Perennial. In moist open woods. Western New York 

 to Wisconsin, and south to Virginia and Tennessee. 

 Found in northern Ohio. April, May. 



Rootstock. — Thick, horizontal, fleshy, with many fibrous 

 roots. 



Leaves. — All basal, forming a tuft, long-petioled, parted 

 into two leaflets, which when fully grown are three to 

 four inches long and two inches wide; ovate, entire, or 

 obscurely toothed or sinuate. 



Flowers. — Solitary, white, with the general appearance 

 of Bloodroot, borne on a scape six to eight inches high. 



Calyx. — Of four sepals, falling as the flower opens. 



Corolla. — Of eight oblong petals, white, longer than the 

 sepals. 



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