24 PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



Hepatica. W. 12. 12. 



H. triloba. W. Early Anemone. Liverleaf. From the 

 Greek for liver, from the color of the leaves. 



Often misnamed Liverwort, which is a Marchantia, and very 

 different from this Liverleaf. Flowers early in the spring, on the 

 sides of sunny hills, and in sunny openings of woods, sending up 

 a cluster of flower-stalks 3-4 inches high, hairy, and bearing 

 each a single white, or blue, or purplish flower ; leaves from the 

 root also, with petioles often longer than the peduncles of the 

 flowers, and rather prostrate, divided each into three segments or 

 lobes, rounded or acutish, and thus constituting the two varieties 

 of obtuse and acute leafed Liverleaf, in their older state, of a 

 fine liver-color. The plant flourishes well under bushes in gar- 

 dens, in situations exposed to the sun. Flowers in April ; was 

 taken from the genus Anemone. 



This plant has been supposed to possess high medicinal virtues, 

 and is sometimes employed in pulmonary complaints. 



Thalictrum. L. 12. 12. Meadow Rue. 



Three species are found in the meadows and borders of 

 woods, which resemble somewhat the Rue of the gardens at a 

 little distance ; the leaves are beautiful, but the flowers are insig- 

 nificant, and neither of the plants is of much consequence. T. 

 dioicum. L., flowers rather earlier than T. cornuti, L. and T. 

 corynellum, DC, and is rather larger than the latter. May and 

 June. 



Named from the Greek, to grow green, from the change in the 

 color of the leaves. 



Caltha. L. 12. 12. 



C palustris. L. Cowslip. It is sometimes called Marsh 

 Marygold, and is a well-known plant of wet places and slow 

 streams. Stem a few inches high, with round, large, heart- 

 shaped or kidney-form leaves, and bearing many deep-yellow 

 flowers. The whole plant and flowers form one kind of common 

 and early greens for the table in the country. Flowers in April, 

 abundant. Several other species have been discovered in Arctic 

 America. 



