RANUNCULACEjE. (crowfoot family.) 7 
1. H* triloba, Chaix. (Round-lobed Hepatica.) Leaves 
with 3 ovate obtuse or rounded lobes; those of the involucre also 
obtuse. — Woods, common, especially in New Engl.; flowering al¬ 
most as soon as the snow leaves the ground in spring. Sepals 7-9, 
blue, purplish, or nearly white. Achenia several, in a small loose 
head, ovate, pointed, hairy. Lobes of the leaves usually very obtuse, 
or rounded. 
2. H. acutiloba, DC. (Sharp-lobed Hepatica ) Leaves 
with 3 ovate and pointed lobes, or sometimes 5-lobed; leaves of the 
involucre acute or acutish. — Woods, Vermont and New York to 
Michigan. Flowers pale purple. 
6. TIIALICTR1JM, L. Meadow Rue. 
Sepals 4 or more, petal-like or greenish. Petals none. Ache¬ 
nia 4 - 15, tipped by the stigma or short style, grooved or ribbed, 
or else inflated. Seed suspended.—Perennials, with 2-3-ter- 
nately compound leaves, the divisions and the leaflets stalked. 
Flowers in corymbs or panicles, often polygamous. (Derivation 
of the name obscure.) 
* Stem-leaves forming an involucre at the summit , like Anemone: root a 
cluster of small tubers: flowers perfect: fruits sessile , grooved. 
1. X. aueillOliOldes, Michx. (Roe-Anemone.) Low ; root- 
leaves twice or thrice 3-divided; the leaflets and the long-stalked 
leaflets of the involucre obtusely 3-lobed at the apex; flowers few 
in a simple umbel, white. (Anemone thalictroides, L., Bigel.) — 
Woods. April, May. — A pretty plant, more like Anemone than 
Thalictrum in aspect. The stem bears 2 or 3 leaves at the very 
summit like those from the root, but without the common petiole, 
so that they appear like a whorl of long-stalked simple leaves. 
Sepals 7-10, half an inch long, not falling off before the stamens. 
Pistils several in a little head, tipped with a flat stigma. 
* * Stem-leaves scattered, 3-4 times compound : root fibrous .* flowers 
dioecious or polygamous : sepals 4-5, falling early : fruits sessile, 
tipped with long stigmas , grooved. 
2. X. dioicum, L. (Early Meadow Rue.) Leaves all with 
general petioles; leaflets rounded and 5-7-lobed; flowers in com¬ 
pound panicles, greenish. — Rocky woods and hill-sides. April, 
May. — A foot or so high, with very pale and delicate foliage, and 
slender yellowish anthers on capillary filaments. 
3. X. Comuti, L. (Meadow Rue.) Stem-leaves icithout 
general petioles ; leaflets 3-lobed at the apex, the lobes acutish; flow¬ 
ers in very compound large panicles, white. — Meadows and along 
streams. June, July. — Stem 3° - 4° high, furrowed. Leaves whit- 
