Coplis. RANUNCULACE.E. 41 



stvle, thinnish, transversely veiny, 8-9-seeded : seeds granulate. — Bot. Beech. 316; Torr. 

 & Gray, Fl. i. 660; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 9; Maxim. 1. c. 641.— Shaded ground, 

 from near San Franci.sco to Plumas Co.,i first coll. by Douglas. Sepals sometimes purple, 

 or roseate.'-^ 



I. stipitatum, Gray. Root of the preceding : slender stems only a span high : peduncles 

 not surpassing the leaves : leaflets or divisions oblong-linear or cuneate-lanceolate : stamens 

 about 10: follicles 8 to 10, elongated-oblong, apiculate with short style, hardly veiny, 

 abruptly short-stipitate, 3-4-seeded. — Proc. Am. Acad. xii. 54; Wats. Bot. Calif, ii. 427. 

 /. Clarkei, Kellogg, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. vii. 131. — N. California, Siskiyou and Mendocino 

 Co., Greene, J. U. Clarke. 



* * Flowers umbellate-cymose : stems stouter, a foot or two high. 



I. Hallii, Gray. Leaflets or divisions an inch or two long, obovate-cuneate, acutely incised : 

 stamens very numerous, fully as long as the obovate sepals, as broad as the roundish anther : 

 follicles 3-5, turgid-ovate, subulate with short style, spreading at maturity, 2-4-seeded: 

 seeds rugulose. — Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 374 ; Maxim. 1. c. 640. — Valley of the Columbia, 

 Oregon, E. Hall, Brandegee. 



13. COPTIS, Salisb. Gold-thread. (Kotttw, to cut, from tlie cut foli- 

 age.) — Low and glabrous perennials (of tlie cooler parts of the northern hemi- 

 sphere), acaulescent: with creeping mostly filiform and yellow bitter rootstocks, 

 long-petioled ternately compound leaves, lasting over winter ; and naked one- 

 few-flowered scapes ; the sepals white or greenish ; seed-coat smooth and shining ; 

 fl. spring. — Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 305; Gray, Gen. 111. i. 37, t. 13.^ CJiryza, 

 Raf. Med. Rep. hex. 2, v. 352, & in Desv. Jour. Bot. ii. 170 (1809). 



§ 1. Chrtza, or True Coptis. Sepals oval : petals shorter than the stamens, 

 clavate, with enlarged and thickened hollowed and nectariferous summit : leaf- 

 lets 3, rarely 5, subsessile and undivided: scape 1 -flowered. — Gray, 1. c. 38. 



C. trifolia, Salisb. 1. c. (Gold-thread.) A span high : rootstocks very long and filiform, 

 deep yellow : leaflets 3, rounded obovate with mostly cuneate base, obscurely 3-lobed and 

 conspicuously crenate-dentate, teeth mucronate : sepals white with yellowish base, soon 

 deciduous : follicles ovate-oblong, longer than the style, equalled by the stipe ; seeds black. 

 — Fl. Dan. t. 1519; Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 173; Bigel. Med. Bot. i. 60, t. 5; Kaf. Med. Bot. i. 

 t. 27 ; Gray,l. c. 38, t. 13 ; Lloyd Bros. Am. Drugs & Med. i. 188, t. 13. Ilelleborus trifolius, 

 L. Spec. i. 558. Chryza borealis, Raf. Med. Rep. hex. 2, v. 352.* — Bogs and low woods, New- 

 foundland and Labrador to mountains of Maryland, Iowa, and Minnesota, northwest through 

 Brit. America to Alaska, and north to the Arctic Circle. (Greenland, Eu., N. Asia to 

 Kamtsch. & Japan.) 



§ 2. Chrysocoptis. Sepals linear or ligulate and attenuate, greenish or 

 yellowish white : petals filiform or ligulate beyond the nectariferous portion : 

 scape 2-3-flowered. — Gray, 1. c, 38. Chr^jsocojJtis § Fterojjhyllum, Nutt. 

 Jour. Acad. Philad. vii. 9, t. 1. 



C. OCCidentalis, Torr. & Gray. Leaves simply trifoliolate : leaflets long-petiolulate, of 

 roundish outline (2 or 3 inches long at maturity), 3-l()bed about to the middle; lobes obtuse, 

 slightly 3-lol)ed or incised and obtusely dentate : petals shorter than sepals, and apparently 

 subulate from a subsessile ovate and concave base (])ut not sufficiently known) -. mature car- 

 pels longer than the .stipe ; seeds oblong. — Fl. i. 28 ; Hook, Lond. Jour. Bot. vi. 67. Chri/so- 

 coptis occidcntalis, Nutt. 1. c. 8, with poor figure of flowers, these and scape undeveloped, the 

 latter at length as long as petioles. — Mountain woods, Idaho, Wi/eih, Geyer, Lyall, Watson. 



1 Fresno Co., Calif., A. A. Entnn ; and reported from Tul.are Co., by T. S. Brandegee, Zee, iv. 198. 



2 The formal variety coloratum, Greene, Erythea, i. 125. collected in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 

 Cushman. 



3 Recent literature: E. Huth in En^l. Jahrh. xvi. 299-305. 



* Add syn. Tsopyrum trifoUum, Bntton, Bull. Torr. Club, xviii. 265. 



