I 1 8 THALICTRUM ANEMONOIDES. — WIND-FLOWER MEADOW-RUE. 



with the Wind-Flower, and numbers of persons pass the places 

 where the two are growing, unconscious of the fact that both 

 are there; and, indeed, there is a singular mimicry of the Ane- 

 mone in many of the characters of our Thalictrum. The whole 

 habit of growth, the Involucre-like leaves, the form and struc- 

 ture of the flower, — all these resemble one another so closely in 

 the two flowers that it is readily understood how the superficial 

 observer may be led into the mistake of believing the two 

 plants to be identical. It is only when we examine the matur- 

 ing- seed-vessels that we see the true relationship of our plant, 

 which inclines towards Ranunculus rather than towards Ane- 

 mone. But the superior importance of the fruit over the inflo- 

 rescence, as a means of determining the relationship of flowers, 

 has been recognized only at a comparatively late period. In 

 most of the old herbariums, good flowering specimens were 

 thought to be all-sufificient ; but now the true botanist is quite as 

 anxious to secure good specimens of the fruit as of the fiower. 

 It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the botanists of the 

 past were rather divided in regard to the classification of our 

 species. The great Linnaeus believed it to be an Anemone, 

 and in this view he was followed by Alton, Willdenow, and 

 most of the older European botanists, and by Pursh and Barton 

 among the earlier botanists of America. Michaux first classed 

 the plant with T/ialictrum, under its present specific name, and 

 the same classification has been adopted by Darlington, Torrey, 

 Gray, Chapman, and the majority of modern botanists in Amer- 

 ica, and by De Candolle and others abroad. It is interesting to 

 note, as showing how evenly divided scientific men have been on 

 the question of the relationship of these " two Dromios," that 

 of the thirty references to our species given by Mr. Sereno 

 Watson in his " Bibliographical Index to North American 

 Botany," fourteen are under the name of Ane7nonc, and sixteen 

 under that of Thalictrum. 



The Thalictrum anemonoidcs has heretofore been popularly 

 known as the Rue Anemone, but as the majority of botanists 



