X 



3o8 FLOWERS OF FIELD, LULL, AND SWAMP 



10. May-apple. Mandrake 



Podophyllum peltatum .—Family^ Barberry. Color, white. 

 Leaves, 2, on forking, stout petioles rising above the flower. 

 Large, variously 5 to 9-lobed, the stalk affixed underneath, a 

 little distance from the edge. Time, May. 



Sepals, 6, falling early. Petals, 6 to 9, roundish. Staincns, 

 twice as many as petals. Fruit, a large berry, witii many 

 seeds filling the cavity. The large, solitary flower droops 

 from a short peduncle between the leaves. Three green 

 bractlets lie underneath, which soon fall. Besides the flower- 

 ing stems, other stems arise from the rootstock bearing one 

 roundish, 7 to 9-lobed leaf, with the stalk joined underneath 

 to the middle. 12 to 18 inches high. 



The children call these umbrella-leaves. The fruit, called in 

 New Jersey May-apple, is edible — that is, it is sweetish and not 

 poisonous, as are all other parts of this singular plant. In New 

 England, May-apple is the name of a modified bud which pro- 

 duces a singular pulpous body upon the azalea. 



Mr. Gibson speaks of the mandrake berry as "a yellow, to- 

 mato-like affair," which, he adds, " has a selfish errand in life. 

 It is filled with seeds, and is concerned only in its own posterity." 



II, Twin-leaf. Rheumatism-root 



Jeffersbnia diphylla (named after Thomas Jefferson). — 

 Family, Barberry. Color, white. Leaves, all from the root, 

 long-petioled, divided into 2 leaflets. Time, April, May. 



Sepals, 4. J'etals and statnens, 8. Pod, with many seeds, 

 opening by a horizontal slit. Flower, i inch across, single, on 

 a naked scape. 6 to 8 inches high. 



A plant of low growth, not uncommon in the woods of w^estern 

 New York, southward and westward. 



12. Blood-root 

 Sanguinaria Canadensis. — Laviily, Poppy. Color, white. 



