EANUNCULACE^E. 24 



concealed beneath the upper sepal, recurved and nectarife- 

 rous at the summit. Style 3 — 5; follicles 3 — 5. 



Gr. ax.oi'tToj, without dust ; because the plants grow on dry rocks. Rank, 

 herbaceous perennials, upright, from 2 to 6 feet high, with many palmate or 

 digitate, dark-green Ivs. with terminal spikes of large blue and yellow flowers. 



1. A. uncina'tum. 



Stem flexuose ; leaves palmate, 3 — 5-parted, with rhomboidal-lanceolate, 

 cut-dentate divisions; wpjjcr lip of the calyx lengthened, convex, beaked. A 

 cultivated, poisonous plant, which is said to be found wild in some parts of 

 N. Y. Two feet high. Flowers blue. Jl. Aug. American Wolfs-bane. 



2. A. Nape'llus. 



Ujiper sepal arched at the back ; lateral ones hairy on the inside ; avaries 3, 

 smooth ; leaves deeply 5-cleft, cut, with linear segments, furrowed above. The 

 common Monk's-hood is found wild in Virginia, and although a noxious poi- 

 son, is cultivated among flowers, it is a tall, rank plant, making quite a con- 

 sequential appearance. Stem about 4 feet high, with a long spike of flowers 

 at its termination. Flowers dark blue, surmounted by the vaulted upper petal 

 as if hooded in a monk's cowl. There are varieties with flowers white, rose- 

 colored, &.C. Aug. Monk's-hood. 



[lb. ADO'NIS. 

 Calyx of 5 appressed sepals; petals 5 — 15, with naked 

 claws; achenia in a spike, ovate and pointed, with the hard- 

 ened, persistent style. 



The plant which is feigned to have sprung from the blood of Adonis, when 

 wounded by the bear. 



1. A. AUTUMNA'LIS. 



Floicers 5 — 8 petaled ; fruit subcylindric ; petals erose or emarginate. A 

 hardy annual, from England, naturalized in N. Y. It is a desirable flower for 

 the garden. The seeds should be sown in Autumn, in a light soil. Flowers 

 crimson. P/ieasaiU's-cyc. 



2. A. VERNA'LIS. 



Lower leaves abortive; upper ones sessile; fruit velvety; petals 10— 12, 

 oblontr, subdentate. An ornamental perennial, from Europe, a foot high, 

 whitet yellow flowers. Fercnnial Adonis. 



IG. PiEO'NIA. 

 Calyx of 5 sepals; corolla of 5 petals; style 0; stig. 2 or 

 3 ; folHcles many-seeded. 



The physician Paon, according to mythology, first used this plant in medi- 

 cine, and cured Pluto with it. The petals are excessively multiplied by cul- 

 tivation. The species are magnificent flowering plants. 



P. officina'lis. 



Fruit downy, nearly straight ; segments of leaves unequally cut ; lobes ovate 

 lanceolate. The splendid Pceony has long been cultivated in every part of 



