308 RANUNCULACE^, 



narrow or closed, the margin crenate or entire: stems several, leafless, 

 1 -flowered: sepals about 10, linear-obloug, white, or with a tinge of lurid 

 purple on the outside: carpels 8 — 10, very shortly stipitate, pointed with 

 the short slender style. — In marshy grounds of the higher Sierra. 



16. ISOPYRUM, Linnxus. Low slender very flaccid perennials, 

 with bi- or triternately compound leaves, and a few smallish white flowers. 

 Sepals 5, petaloid. Petals 0. Stamens 10 — 40. Pistils 3—6, becoming 

 transversely veined rather few-seeded follicles. 



1. I. occideiitale, H. & A. Bot. Beech. 316 (1840). Roots fascicled, 

 fibrous: stem 6 — 10 in. high, parted above into few 1-flowered branches: 

 leaflets 4—8 lines long, irregularly 3-lobed: pods short, sessile, obliquely 

 pointed. — Under oaks, or other trees and shrubs, among the foothills on 

 either side of the valley of the Sacramento; Forest Hill, Bolander, and 

 Vaca Mts., Jepson. Mar., Apr. 



2. I. stipitatum, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 54 (1876): /. Clarkei, 

 Kell. Proc. Calif. Acad. vii. 131 (1877). Much smaller, the roots thickened 

 almost to the tuberous : leaflets deeply 3-parted into oblong segments : fl. 

 solitary: follicles broadly oblong, obtuse, distinctly stipitate. — Mendocino 

 Co., /. H. Clarke, and northward. Apr., May. 



11. COPTIS, Salisbury (Gold-Thread). Low perennials; the hard 

 tenacious running rootstocks and fibrous roots yellow. Leaves all radical, 

 ternately compound, coriaceous, evergreen. Flowers few, borne umbel- 

 lately at summit of a naked scape. Sepals 5—7, petaloid, narrow. Petals 

 as many, narrow. Stamens 10—20. Pistils 3 — 5 or more, becoming stipi- 

 tate follicles containing several crustaceous shining seeds. 



1. C. laciiiiata, Gray, Bot. Gaz. xii. 297 (1887): C. asplenifulia, Wats. 

 Bot. Calif., not Salisb. Leaves trifoliolate, the lateral leaflets short- 

 stalked, all ovate, nearly 3-parted, their divisions incised, acute : sepals 

 and petals linear-attenuate : mature pods longer than their stipe: seeds 

 oval. — A rare denizen of deep moist woodlands in Mendocino and Hum- 

 boldt counties, G. R. Vasey, V. C. Marshall. 



12. AQUILEGIA, Tragus (Columbine). Perennials, branching above. 

 Leaves mostly radical and biternate; the leaflets with roiinded lobes; 

 texture membranaceous. Flowers, at the ends of the few branches, large, 

 showy, usually somewhat nodding. Sepals 5, plane, colored like the 

 petals. Petals 5, tubular, projecting like hollow spurs behind the sepals, 

 and ending in a small globular cavity which is filled with honey. Pistils 

 5, becoming follicles, each with many black shining seeds. 



1. A. truiicata, F. & M. Ind. Sem. Petr. Suppl. 8 (1843); C. A. Mey. 

 Sert. Petr. 1. 11: A. Californica, Lindl. Gard. Chron.836 (18.54): A. eximia 



