RANUNCULACE^. 23 



of Berkshire County. This species was taken from the pre- 

 ceding genus, and formed into a genus by itself. 



Anemone. L. 12. 12. Windflower. 



From the Greek for icind, from its bleak locaHties. Loudon. 



Three species ; two, nemorosa, DC, and thalictroides, L., 

 small, delicate, beautiful ; flowering in April and May, about 

 hedges and woods. 



^. Virginiana. L. This is a taller and coarser plant, in fields 

 and pastures and hedges ; its stem dividing about a foot from the 

 ground into 2, and sometimes more, flower-stalks, which bear 

 a single whitish-green flower, and mature their fruit in a cylindrical 

 head an inch or more long ; leaves are given ofi" at this division 

 of the stem, ternate, deeply lobed and hairy. Flowers in July ; 

 fruit woolly. 



It is often said, in the western part of the State, that the In- 

 dians made use of this plant to prevent the fatal efl'ects of the 

 poison of the rattlesnake. 



j3. cylindrica. Gray. Stem 1-3 feet high, with subumbellate 

 flower-stalks, each bearing one flower in a yellowish-green many- 

 leafed flower-cup ; head of fruit an inch long ; leaves in 3 divis- 

 ions ; the lateral segments 2-parted, and the middle one 3-cleft ; 

 flowers in June ; coUected near Boston by Mr. Greene. T. and 

 Gr. in " Flora of North America." 



CoPTis. Sals. 12. 12. 



C. trifolia. Sals. Goldthread. Named by the common 

 people from its small, horizontal, creeping, bright-yellow roots, 

 lying just under the surface ; a flower-stalk bearing one white 

 flower, rises from the root to the height of about 3 inches ; 

 leaves radical and ternate, about as high as the flowers ; grows in 

 swamps or low grounds, on banks, or around the roots of trees, 

 and flowers from May to July. Roots bitter, and the infusion 

 used for " apthous affections of the mouth." See Bigelow's 

 " Medical Botany." The plant yields a yellow dye. Beck, 



Named from the Greek, to cut, on account of the divided leaves. 



