BERBERIDACEiE. (BARBERRY FAMILY.) 53 



ovary burstiug soon after flowering by the pressure of the 2 erect, enlarging 

 seeds, and withering away ; the spherical seeds naked on tlieir thick seed-stalks, 

 looking like drupes, the flesliy integument turning blue; albumen hornv. — 

 A perennial glabrous herb, with matted knotty rootstocks, sending up in earlv 

 spring a simple and naked stem, terminated by a small raceme or panicle of 

 yellowish-green flowers, and a little below bearing a large triternatelv com- 

 pound sessile leaf (whence the name, from Kav\6s, steniy and <pvK\ov, leaf, the 

 stem seeming to form a stalk for the great leaf.) 



1. C. thalictroides, Michx. (Also called Pappoose-root.) Stems 

 1-2|° high; leaflets ohovate wedge-form, 2-3-lobed, a smaller biternate leaf 

 often at the base of the panicle ; flowers appearing while the leaf is yet small. 

 — Deep rii'h woods ; common westward. April, May. — Whole plant glaucous 

 when young, as also the seeds, which are as large as peas. 



3. DIPHYLLEIA, Michx. U:«brella-leaf. 



Sepals 6, fugacious. Petals 6, oval, flat, larger than the sepals. Stamens 6 ; 

 anthers oblong. Ovary oblong ; style hardly any ; stigma depressed. Ovules 

 5 or 6, attached to one side of the cell below the middle. Berry globose, few- 

 seeded. Seeds oblong, with no aril. — A perennial glabrous herb, with thick 

 horizontal rootstocks, sending up each year either a huge centrally peltate and 

 cut-lobed, rounded, umbrella-like radical leaf, on a stout stalk, or a flowering 

 stem bearing two similar (but smaller and more 2-cleft) alternate leaves which 

 are peltate near one margin, and terminated by a cyme of white flowers. 

 (Name composed of Zis, (louUc, and (pvKKou, !(('/■) 



1. D. cym6sa, Michx. Root-leaves 1-2° in diameter, 2-cleft, each di- 

 vision 5--7-lobed' lol)es toothed; berries blue. — Wet or springy places, 

 mountains of Va. and southward. jNIay. 



4. JEFFERSONIA, Barton. Twix-leaf. 



Sepals 4, fugacious. Petals 8, oblong, flat. Stamens 8 , anthers oblong- 

 linear, on slende. filaments. Ovary ovcjid, soon gibbous, pointed , stigma 2- 

 lobed. Pod pear-shaped, opening half-way round horizontally, the upper part 

 making a lid. Seeds many in several rows on the lateral placenta, with a 

 fleshy lacerate aril on one side. — A perennial glabrous herb, with matted 

 fibrous roots, long-petioled root-leaves, parted into 2 half-ovate leaflets, and 

 simple naked 1 -flowered scapes. (Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson.) 



1. J. diph^lla, Pers. Low; flower white, I' broad, the parts rarely in 

 threes or fives. — Woods, western N. Y. to Wise, and southward. April, 

 May. — Called Rheumatism-root in some places. 



6. PODOPHYLLUM, L. Mat-Apple. Mandrake. 



Plower-bud with three green bractlets, which early fall away Sepals 6, 

 fugacious. Petals 6 or 9, obovate. Stamens twice as many as the petals m 

 our species ; anthers linear-oblong, not opening by uplifted valves Ovary 

 ovoid ; stigma sessile, large, thick and undulate. Fruit a large fleshy berry. 

 Seeds covering the very large lateral placenta, in many rows, each seed en 

 closed in a pulpy aril, all forming a mass which fills the cavity of the fruit. — 

 Perennial herbs, with creeping rootstocks and thick fibrous roots. Stems 



