104 FAMILIES OF FLOAYEEING PLANTS 



a group in which there is naturally a wide range of color, have re- 

 sponded well to hybridization, and may now be found in almost all 

 shades of yellow, red, blue and white. 



Owing to the acrid and caustic principle that pervades the herbage 

 and more particularly the roots of many members of the Ranuncula- 

 ceae, several important drags and poisons, such as aconite and helle- 

 bore, are derived from them. 



Family Lardizabalaceae. Lardizabala Family. A small Asiatic 

 family of seven genera and eleven species, interesting chiefly as orna- 

 mental shrubs. Akebia quinata, a Japanese woody vine with lurid pur- 

 ple flowers, palmately lobed leaves, and odd green fruit, is now com- 

 monly cultivated in this country. 



Family Berberidaceae. Barberry Family. Consists of eight gen- 

 era and about 140 species, most of which belong to Berheris. The 

 group consists of herbs or shrubs, which may be known by the flowers 

 having imbricated petals, and stamens of the same number as the 

 petals, and placed opposite them. The pistil is simple, becoming in 

 fruit a berry or a capsule. 



The Berberidaceae was made by older systematists to include the 

 Lardizabalaceae. Its relatio "iship to the other families discussed in 

 this chapter may be traced by means of the hypogynous petals and 

 stamens. Berheris, the most important genus, is represented by a num- 

 ber of pinnate-leaved species native in western North America, and by 

 many exotics of the simple-leaved group in cultivation. The pendent 

 racemes of variously colored flowers, succeeded by the showy berries, 

 are highly ornamental. The fruit of the common barberry {B. vulgaris) 

 makes an excellent preserve, while the bark of several species is used 

 in the manufacture of dyes. 



The mandrake or may-apple {PodophilJum peltatum)) one of our 

 familiar eastern wild flowers, belongs to this family, as does also the 

 twin-leaf {Je/fersonia diphylla), and the blue cohosh {Caidophyllum thal- 

 ictroides). The large leaves of the mandrake, curiously suggestive of 

 uiubrellas, conceal beneath their ample expanse a handsome waxy white 

 flower, possessing a peculiar pineapple-like fragrance. This is suc- 

 ceeded by a lemon-shaped fruit of a disgustingly mawkish flavor, which, 

 as Dr. Gray once observed, is "eaten by pigs and boys." The Berberi- 

 daceae as a group are confined to temperate regions, and find the center 

 of their distribution in the Ghino-Japanese region. 



Family Menispermaceae. Moonseed Family. A group of t^dning 

 herbaceous or woody \dnes, comprised in about 55 genera and 150 spe- 

 cies, natives mostly of tropical regions, with only a few representatives 

 in the temperate zone. The family is at once distinguished by the pe- 

 culiar curved embryo in the seed, which may be plainly seen in cross- 



