RANUNCULACE.E. 3 



or reduced scarious scales. Carpels usually 5, sessile, with numerous ovules in two rows : 



styles filiform, above introrse-stigmatose. Seed-coat crustaceous, usually smooth and 



shining. 



H — 1— -t— Sepals (5) and petals (2 or 4) irregular; upper one of the former spurred or 



helmet-shaped : stamens numerous : stigma iutrorse : follicles 1 to 5, several-many-seeded, 



sessile, stylifcrous. 



15. DELPHINIUM. Upper sepal extended posteriorly from the base into a spur. Petals 

 4 in two pairs, or the lateral pair wanting ; tliese with a small spreading lamina on a claw of 

 about equal length ; upper produced backward into nectariferous sjiurs within the calyx- 

 spur, in the annual species the two united into one body. Follicles 1 to 5. 



1 6. ACONITUM. Upper sepal ample, helmet-shaped or prolonged-saccate ; the others 

 plane, lateral larger than the lower pair. Petals only 2 (the lateral and lower either wanting 

 or minute rudiments), reduced to very long-unguiculate hood-shaped or hammer-shaped 

 nectaries covered by the u])per sepal. Follicles 3 to 5, rarely more. 



-)— H— H— -H- Sepals 3 to 5, regular, caducous : petals much smaller, plane, unguiculate, or 

 reduced to staminodes, less showy than the white numerous stamens, or none : stigma 

 terminal or nearly so : flowers racemose : leaves decompound. {Cimicifugece.) 



1 7. CIMICIFUGA. Carpels few or solitary, in fruit thin-walled follicles. Petals or stami- 

 nodes when present notched or 2-cleft at top. Flowers in elongated often paniculately 

 disposed racemes. 



18. ACT-.SIA. Carpel solitary, sessile, crowned with a broad and obscurely 2-lobed depressed 

 stigma, in fruit a lierry filled with depressed horizontal seeds. Petals plane, entire. Flow- 

 ers in a short raceme. 



* * Ovules a single pair : flowers regular : roots and rootstocks yellow, bitter, charged 

 with berberine. (Xanthorrluzece.) 



19. HYDRASTIS. Sepals 3, petaloid, very caducous. Petals none. Stamens very 

 numerous, white, like those of Achea. Carpels 1.5 to 20, sessile and capitate: style short: 

 stigma terminal, 2-lipped. (Ovules ascending, at first collateral, borne on the middle of the 

 placenta. Fruit baccate, the pulpy red 1-2-seeded carpels compacted in a globular head on 

 an oblong receptacle. Herb, with few palmately lobed leaves and single flower. 



20. XANTHORRHIZA. Sepals 5, petaloid, tardily deciduous. Petals 5, small and gland- 

 like, consisting of a rounded and 2-lobed fleshy lamina on a short claw. Stamens 5, alternate 

 with the petals and not surpassing them, or sometimes more. Carpels 5 to 10, sessile, 

 2-ovuled about the middle, tapering into a subulate style with introrse stigma, in fruit one- 

 seeded oblong follicles of gil)bous growth, the persistent style becoming dorsal and the seed 

 pendulous from the apparent apex. Low shrub, with pinnate leaves and racemose-panicu- 

 late flowers. 



Tribe IV (and indeed suborder). P^ONIE^. A perigynous fleshy disk adnate 

 to the base of the strongly imbricated persistent calyx or concave receptacle, 

 bearing the large plane petals and numerous stamens. Carpels few, becoming 

 coriaceous many-seeded follicles. Style short or none. Sepals and petals regular, 

 mostly .5, or the latter often more numerous. Embryo comparatively large in firm 

 fleshy albumen. Perennial herbs or low shrubs, with alternate leaves, and no 

 acridity. 



31. P.^ONIA. Stigma introrse, crest-like and revolute, bilamclhir. Stamens very nu- 

 merous : anthers entire at l)ase. Seeds anatropous, oval or oblong, naked at base or the 

 very short flesiiy funiculus cupulate, the coat disposed to be externally fleshy. Embryo 

 straight or sliglitly arcuate. Herbs with tuberous roots or shrubby, with teruately compound 

 or divided leaves. 



22. CROSSOSOMA. Stigma terminal, depressed-capitate, emarginate. Stamens 12 to 

 30: anthers deeply emarginate at base. Follicles 1 to 6 (to 9), when solitary stipitate, 

 otherwise more or less elevated on a common stipe. Ovules amphitropous. Seeds campylo- 

 tropous and reniform, crustaceous, furnished with a fimbriate-multifid fleshy arillus of their 

 own length. Embryo sern'rinnular, little sliorter tlian tlic firm fleshy albumen : cotyledons 

 linear, thrice tlie length of the radicle. Entire-leaved shrubs. 



