N. ORD. RANUNCULACE. 
Tribe.—ANEMONEA. 
GENUS.—ANEMONE, LINN. 
SEX. SYST.—POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA. 
EER A LIGA. 
LIVER-LEAF. 
to 
SYN.—ANEMONE HEPATICA, LINN.; HEPATICA TRILOBA, CHAIX.; 
HEPATICA TRILOBA, VAR. AMERICANA, D. C.; HEPATICA TRI- 
LOBA, VAR. OBTUSA, PURSH.; HEPATICA AMERICANA. KER. 
COM. NAMES.—LIVER-LEAF, HEPATICA,* ROUND-LOBED HEPATICA, 
LIVER-WORT,} LIVER-WEED, TREFOIL, HERB TRINITY, KIDNEY- 
WORT; (FR.) HEPATIQUE; (GER.), EDELLEBERE. 
A TINCTURE OF THI! FRESH LEAVES OF ANEMONE HEPATICA, LINN. 
Description.—This dwarf herb, so eagerly sought after as one of our earliest 
spring flowers, grows from radical scaly buds amid the thick, leathery leaves of 
the previous year’s growth. oot fibrous, perennial. Svem none. Leaves ever- 
green, all radical on long, slender petioles; light green and hairy when young ; 
dark olive-green above and purplish beneath, when old, and while the plant is 
in blossom; they are cordate in general outline, 3-lobed, the lobes ovate, obtuse. 
Inflorescence solitary, terminal, on long, hairy scapes, circinate, then erect. /nvo- 
lucre simple, composed of three entire, obtuse, hairy, persistent leaves, somewhat 
resembling a calyx, from its close proximity to the flower. Calyx composed of 
from 6 to 9 ovate, obtuse, petaloid sepa/s, varying in color from pure white to a 
deep purplish-blue with white borders; these latter, I have noticed, are always 
destitute of stamens.t Stamens numerous, hypogynous; //aments long, slender, 
and smooth; anthers short, 2-celled. %stils 12 to 20, hairy ; ovary 1-celled; ovules 
one in each cell, suspended, anatropous ; sty/e single, short, pointed; stigma a stig- 
matose marginal line, extending down the inner side of the style. Achenza loosely 
aggregated in a globose head, ovate-oblong, hairy, tipped with the short persistent 
style; seed filling the whole cell to which it conforms. 
History and Habitat.—Hepatica is a native of the colder portions of the 
North Temperate Zone, growing in rich, open woods as far as the limit of trees. 
In North America it grows from Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri, east and north- 
east to the Atlantic; flowering, in some seasons, as early as March, and continu- 
ing in flower until May. This plant was placed in the genus Anemone by 
* Exartxds, epatikos, affecting the liver; or, ‘zap, efar, the liver, from a fancied resemblance of the leaves to that 
organ, or their action upon it. 
+ The proper liverwort is Marchantia polymorpha, a cryptogamous plant (MJuscales) of the order Hepaticea. 
{ Author in Bull. Torr. Club, 1884, p. 55. 
