FAMILIES OF FLOWEEING PLANTS 



103 



sepals and petals distinct. The stamens vary from few to many, and 

 are liypogynous, or inserted on the receptacle beneath the pistils. 



On account of the ease with which the floral parts of most Rannn- 

 culaceae can be examined, this family has long been a favorite with 

 amateur students, and in the old sequence established by Bentham and 

 Hooker, the Ranunculaceae were placed at the head, chiefly on account 

 of their simplicity of structure. In many respects the group as it 

 stands is an artificial one, for it includes plants with berry-like fruit, as 

 in Actaea and its relatives ; plants bearing achenes, like the crowfoots ; 

 and plants with small capsules or follicles like the columbine and lark- 

 spur. But while the genera have of late years been frequently divided, 

 Hepatica being removed from Anemone, and Atragene from Clematis, for 

 example, the family has been 

 treated as an aggregate. 



Members of the Ranuncula- 

 ceae are among the first flowers to 

 welcome us in early spring. The 

 hepatica, well shown in the beau- 

 tiful accompanying photograph, 

 unfolds its fuzzy flower buds on 

 rocky slopes with the first balmy 

 breath of spring, often when crev- 

 ices of the adjacent cliffs are still 

 sealed with snow. A little later, 

 various species of RaiiKHcnlns 

 brighten the open woodlands and 

 pastures with flecks of golden yel- 

 low, a color reflected from the 

 near-by swamps in the flowers of 

 the marsh-marigold {CaWia palus- 

 tris). The anemone and the rue- 

 anemone help to carpet the ground, 

 while the feathery, grayish-white 



masses of meadow-rue ( Tludictriim dioicum) give a ghostly suggestion 

 to the woods. In midsummer various forms of clematis serve as a re- 

 minder of the family. 



The beauty of most ranunculaceous flowers in the wild state has 

 rendered it unnecessary to develop them to a marked degree in culti- 

 vation, but the larkspurs have been greatly improved, while the genus 

 Paeonia, which has its headquarters in eastern Asia, has attained a 

 wonderful prominence in the hands of the horticulturists. Many of 

 the large double paeonies are fully efjual to roses in the beauty of their 

 coloring, and in delicacy of texture. The columbines, moreover, being 



Fig. S6. The early meadow-nie {Thajictrnni 

 dioicum). After Britton & Brown, 111. Fl. 

 North. U. ,S. 



