16 RANtrNCHLACRS. (OIIOWFOOT FAMILY.) 



DIVISION I. POLTPETAL^. 



Order 1. RANUNCULACEiE. 



Herbs or shrubs, with colorless juice; foliage various; stipules none; organs of thfr 

 flower free and distinct; sepals, petals, and pistils few or many; stamens numerous; petals 

 sometimes wanting, then the sepals are usually petaloid; anthers short and adnate; seeds 

 with minute embryos in fleshy albumen. 



* Flower$ regular. 



Petals none; shrubby climbers Clematis. 1 



Petals none; small herbs Anemone. 2 



Petals 5 or more; carpels numerous Ranunculus. 3 



Petals 5, spiu-red; carpels 5 Aquilegia. 4 



• * Flowers irregular; colored sepals conspicitous. 



Upper sepal spurred- Delphinium. 5 



Upper sepal hooded. Aconitum. 6 



* * * Sepals large, leaf-like, persistent 

 Flowers large Paeonia. 7 



1. CLEMATIS, L. Virgin's Bowek. 



Sepals 4, colored and petal-like, valvate in the bud. Pistils numerous; styles persistent, 

 becoming long feathery tails in fruit. Half -woody climbers or perermial herbs, with 

 opposite leaves. 



1. C. ligusticifolia, Nutt. Stems climbing by the petioles of the 5-foliolate leaves; 

 leaflets broadly ovate to lanceolate, 1^ to 3 inches long, acute or acuminate, 3-lobed and 

 coarsely toothed, rarely entire or 3-parted. Flowers dioecious, paniculate; sepals thin, 

 silky, white, 4 to 6 lines long; akenes pubescent; tails 1 to 2 inches long. 



Var. Califomica, Watson. Leaves silky -tomentose beneath, often smalL 



2. C. lasiantha, Nutt. Leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets ovate, 1 to 1^ inches long, acute, 

 coarsely toothed or 3-lobed or the terminal 3-parted. Flowers solitary on 1-2-bractcd 

 peduncles; sepals obtuse, thick, 6 to 10 lines long. 



2. ANEMONE, L. 



Sepals 4 to 20, colored and petal-like, imbricated in the bud. Petals none. Pistils 

 numerous; style short; stigma lateral; akenes compressed, pointed, in a head. Erect 

 perennial herbs, with lobed or di\dded leaves, which are radical, except those which form 

 an involucre below the flower. 



