36 CROWFOOT FAMILY. » 



§ 1. Long hairy styles form feathery tails to the akenes, like those of Virgin's- 

 Bower: fi. large, purple, in early spring. The genus Pclsatilla of some 

 authors. 

 A. Pulsatilla, Pasque-flower, of Europe. Cult, in some flower-gar- 

 dens ; has the root-leaves finely thrice-pinnately divided or cut ; otherwise much 

 like the next. 



A. patens, var. Nuttalli^na, Wild P. On the plains N. W. ; the 

 handsome purple or purplish flower (2' or more across when open) rising from 

 the ground on a low soft-hairy stem (3' -6' high), with an involucre of many 

 very narrow divisions ; the leaves from the root appearing later, and twice or 

 thricc-ternately divided and cut. 



§ 2. Short styles not making long tails, but only naked or hairy tips. 

 * Garden Anemonies, yrom aS. Eu., with tuberous roots and very large flowers. 

 A. COron^ria, with leaves cut into many fine lobes, and 6 or more broad 

 oval sepals, also 



A. hortensis, with leaves less cut into broader wedge-shaped divisions and 

 lobes, and many longer and narrow sepals, — are the originals of the showy, 

 mostly double or semi-double, great-flowered Garden Anemonies, of all col- 

 ors, red in the wild state, — not fully hardy, treated like bulbs. 

 * * Wild species, smaller flowered. 

 H- Pistils very many , forming a dense woolly head in fruit : leaves of the involucre 

 long-petioleU , compound : flowers of 5 small greenish-white sepals, silky beneath : 

 stem 2° - S° high. 

 A. cylindrica, Long-fruited A. Involucre several-leaved surrounding 

 several long naked peduncles; fl. late in spring (in dry soil N. & W.), followed 

 by a cylindrical head of fruit. 



A. Virginiana, Virginian A. Involucre 3-leaved; peduncles formed in 

 succession all summer, the middle or first one naked, the others bearing 2 leaves 

 (involucel) at the middle, from which proceed two more peduncles, and so on : 

 head of fruit oval or oblong. Common in woods and meadows. 



^- -t- Pistils fewer, not woolly in fruit : flower 1' or more broad. 



A. Pennsylvanica, Pennsylvanian A. Stem 1° high, bearing an invo- 

 lucre of 3 wedge-sliaped 3-cleft and cut sessile leaves, and a naked peduncle, then 

 2 or 3 peduncles with a pair of smaller leaves at their middle, and so on ; fl. white, 

 in summer. (Lessons, fig. 179.) Alluvial ground, N. & W. 



A. nemordsa. Wood A. Stem 4' -10' high, bearing an involucre of 3 

 long-petioled leaves of 3 or 5 leaflets, and a single short-ped uncled flower ; sepals 

 white, or purple outside. Woodlands, early spring. 



4. THALICTRUM, MEADOW-RUE. (Old name, of obscure deriva- 

 tion.) The following are the common wild species, in woodlands and low 

 grounds. 



§ 1. Flowers pei feci, few, in an umbel: resembling an Anemone: sepals 5-10. 



T. anemonoides, Rue-Anemone. A very smooth and delicate little 

 plant, growing with Wood Anemone, which it resembles in having no stem- 

 leaves except those that form an involucre around the umbel of white (rarely 

 pinkish) flowers, appearing in early spring ; leaflets roundish, 3-lobcd at the 

 end, long-stalked ; ovaries many-grooved, and with a flat-topped sessile stigma : 

 otherwise it would rank as an Anemone. 



§ 2. Flowers mostly dioecious and not handsome, small, in loose compound panicles ; 

 the 4 or 5 sep(ds fallinq early : stigmas slender : akenes several-grooved and 

 angled: leaves ternately decompound (Licssons, fig. \i%) , all alternate ; the upper- 

 most not forming an involucre. 



T. dioicum, Early Meadow-Rue. Herb glaucous, l°-2°high; flow- 

 ers greenish, in early spring ; the yellowish linear anthers of the sterile plant 

 hanging on long capillary filaments ; leaves all on general petioles. Rocky 

 woods. 



T. purpur^scens, Pubpush M. Later, often a little downy, 2° -4° 



