100 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Croiirfoot Family 



R a n u n c u 1 a c e a e 

 Marsh Marigold; Cowslip 



Caltha palustris Linnaeus 



Plate 39 



A succulent, herbaceous plant with stout, glabrous, hollow stems, 

 erect or ascending, i to 2 feet high, branching and bearing several or 

 numerous bright-yellow flowers. Lower leaves long petioled, the blades 

 cordate or reniform, 2 to 8 inches broad, with a narrow sinus, crenate, 

 dentate, or nearly entire on the margin. LTpper leaves smaller, with short 

 petioles or sessile with nearly truncate bases. Flowers i to i^ inches 

 broad; sepals oval, obtuse, petallike. True petals none. Stamens numer- 

 ous, obovoid. Carpels several, in fruit forming follicles which are 

 slightly compressed, about one-half of an inch long, and slightly curved 

 outward. 



In swamps, wet meadows and marshes, Newfoundland to South 

 Carolina, west to Saskatchewan and Nebraska. Flowering in May and 

 June. 



Goldenseal ; Orange-root 

 Hydrastis canadensis Linnaeus 



Figure XV 



An erect, perennial herb with a thick yellow rootstock. Stems lo to 

 15 inches high. Usually each plant with a single, long-petioled basal leaf 

 which is 5 to 8 inches broad and palmately 5 to 9-lobed, the lobes broad, 

 pointed, sharply and unequally toothed. Stem leaves two, borne at the 

 summit of the stem, similar in shape but smaller than the basal leaf, the 

 uppermost leaf just below the solitary, greenish white flower, which is 

 one-third to one-half of an inch broad. Sepals three, petallike and falling 

 away as the flower opens. Petals none. Stamens numerous, their filaments 

 widened and about one-sixth of an inch long; anthers oblong, obtuse. 

 Carpels several, ripening into an ovoid, crimson head of fruit about two- 



