26 RANUNCULACE^. Caltha. 



7. CYRTORHYNCHA. Nutt. mss. 



V 



" Sepals 5, petaloid, narrow, spreading. Petals 5, narrow and unguiculate ; 

 the claAV nearly the length of the lamina, with a projecting scaly callosity 

 at its summit. Stamens rather numerous: anthers rounded. Stigmas ^hort 

 and subulate, strongly incurved. Achenia oblong-cylindrical, somewhat con- 

 spicuously grooved (not carinated), collected into a spheroidal head. Seed 

 suspended. — A small perennial herbaceous plant. Leaves mostly arising 

 from a short caudex, ternate and bipinnatcly divided. Panicle loose and cy- 

 mose. Calyx petaloid and, like the corolla, bright yellow. In the fruit it 

 resembles Thalictrum; in the flower, both Anemone and Ranunculus." 



C. ranuncrdina (Nutt.! mss.) 



" By the sides of gravelly brooks in the eastern range of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, around the place known by the name of Independence Rock on the 

 banks of the Sweet Water of the Platte, but not further to the Avestward. 

 Flowers in June. — Caudex clothed with numerous brown vestiges of sheath- 

 ing petioles. The whole plant quite smooth. Leaves somewhat coriaceous 

 and shining ; radical ones on long petioles, the subdivisions pinnatifid ; la- 

 cinise entire or 2-3-toothed. Stem, or scape, about a span high, cymosely 

 branched above ; bearing at the lowest division a single sessile 3-parted 

 leaf, and at the upper divisions minute and undivided leaves. Sepals ob- 

 long-ovate, spreading but not reflexed. Petals somewhat longer than the 

 sepals, oblong, obtuse, very conspicuously narrowed beloAv into a long claw, 

 (almost like the nectaries of Coptis) ; the upper part of the claw thickened 

 bv a scale-like process. Stamens 20 or more : anthers adnate. Carpels 

 10-15, quite glabrous, cylindrical-oblong, grooved (as in Thalictrum). Stig- 

 ma subulate, shorter than the ovary, inflexed so as to be almost concealed 

 in the mature fruit." 



Tribe III. HELLEBORES. DC. 



Petals IrreQ-ular, often bilabiate or tubular, nectariferous, sometimes 

 wanting. Calyx petaloid. Anthers mostly extrorse. Carpels few 

 (rarely solitary), follicular, with several seeds. 



8. CALTHA. Linn.; DC. sysi. 1. p. 306. 



Sepals 6-9, petaloid. Petals none. Stamens numerous. Ovaries 5-10. 

 Follicles 5-10, compressed, spreading, many-seeded. — Perennial very gla- 

 brous herbs. Leaves cordate or reniform (rarely sagittate). — The North 

 American species belong to § 2. Populago, DC. 



1. C. palustris (Linn.) : stem erect ; leaves suborbicular, cordate or reni- 

 form, obtusely crenate or nearly entire ; the lobes rounded ; sepals 5-6, 

 broadly oval. — DC. prodr. 1. p. 44; Micli.v. fl. 1. p. 324; Piirsh^ f. 2. p. 

 390; Darlingt.fl. Cest. p. 336. 



/?. integerrima : leaves wholly entire ; floral ones sessile, obscurely cre- 

 nate, petals obovate. — C. integerrima, Pursh! Ji. 2. p. 390; DC. prodr. 1. 

 p. 45. 



y. parnassifolia: stem 1-flowered, 1-leaved; leaves all petioled, broadly- 

 reniform, sharply toothed ; sepals elliptical. — C. parnassifolia, Raf. in med. 



