56 RANUNCULACE^. Hydrastis. 



A'. pachypoda,YA\. Sk. ii. 15. — Woods in rich soil, New Brunswick and Canada to Minne- 

 sota, and south to the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia.^ 



19. HYDRASTIS, Ellis. Yellow-root, &c. (Unmeauing name, sug- 

 gested from some likeness of the leaf to that of Hijdrophyllum Canadense, with 

 which the sterile plant was at first confounded.) — Ellis in L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 

 ii. 1088, & Gen. ed. 6, no. 704; Gray, Gen. 111. i. 47, t. 18.^ Warneria, Mill. 

 Ic. ii. 190, t. 285 (1768). — Single species. 



H. Canadensis, L- (Golden-seal, Yellow Pcccoon, &c.) Eootstock fleshy, marked 

 on the upper side hy circuhar scars of the annually produced stem, deep yellow within : 

 herbao-e pubescent ; sterile growth a long-petioled and large peltate 5-7-lobed leaf ; fertile a 

 low and simple stem, bearing toward the summit two alternate 5-7-lobed and serrate leaves, 

 the lower petioled, upper sessile and a short-peduncled white flower, in early spring : the red 

 fruit, resembling that of a Ruhus, maturing in summer. — Syst. Nat. ed. 10, ii. 1088, & 

 Spec', ed. 2, i. 784; Michx. Fl. i. 317 ; Raf. Med. Fl. i. 251, t. 51 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 9, 

 & Bot. Mag. t. 3019 & 3232 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 40; Lloyd Bros. 1. c. 76, t. 8, f. 27-29. 

 Hydrophyllum veriun, &c., L. Spec. 1. 146. — Woods in rich soil, Canada near the Lakes and 

 New York, to Wisconsin, Iowa, and south to Missouri, Tennessee, and Georgia along the 

 mountains. 



20. XANTHORRHIZA, Marshall. Shrub Yellow-root. (Eav^o's, 

 yellow, pita, root.) — Arbust. 167 (1785); Endl. Gen. 850; Benth. & Hook. 

 Gen. i. 9. Zanthorhiza (erroneous form), L'Her. Stirp. 79, t. 38 (1784); Juss. 

 Gen. 234; DC. Syst. i. 386; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 40; Gray, Gen. 111. i. 45, 

 t. 17. — Single species, with floral characters of Banuncidacece, but yellow wood 

 and other sensible properties of Berberis. 



X. apiifolia, L'Her. 1. c. Stems a foot to a yard high, seldom branching, with gray bark 

 and bright yellow wood of Barberry, from similar rootstocks, sending off yellow fibrous 

 roots, from terminal scaly bud producing in spring long droopiug racemes or sometimes 

 panicles, or a racemose cluster of them, and pinnately 3-5-foliolate leaves, the later growth 

 bearing 5-7-foliolate leaves ; petioles much dilated at base and half-clasping ; leaflets ovate 

 and oblong, irregularly incised and serrate, often 3-cleft : flowers small, brown-purple, 

 sometimes polygamous. — Ait. Kew. i. 399 ; Lam. 111. t. 854 ; Barton, Elem. Bot. App. 26, 

 t. 12; Nouv. Duham. iii. 151, t. 37 ; Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1736 ; Barton, Veg. Mat. Med. ii. 

 203, t. 46 ; Lloyd Bros. 1. c. 291, t. 25, f. 99-105 3 X slmplicissima, Marsh. 1. c. 168. Artaa 

 dioica, Walt. Car. 152. — Along streamlets of the Alleghany Mountain district, from S. W. 

 New York to Florida, west to Kentucky. 



21. P-^6NIA, Tourn. P^ony. (Ancient Greek and Latin name, said 



to be in honor of a 2:)hysician, Pceon.^ — Robust and large-flowered herbs (or a 



Chinese species shrubby), with divided leaves and ample flowers ; some Old 



World species familiar in gardens, one indigenous on the Pacific coast. — Inst. 



273, t. 146 ; L. Gen. no. 445. 



P. Brownii, Dougl. Low, with glaucous or pale and rather fleshy 1-2-ternately divided 

 and parted leaves; lobes obovate or spatulate to nearly linear : fructiferous stems reclined 

 or recurved : flowers dull colored : petals 5 or 6, thickish, dull brownish red, hardly surpass- 

 ing the roundish concave sepals : disk many-lobed : follicles mostly 5, glabrous ; seeds 

 oblong. — Dougl. in Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 27 ; Liudl. Bot. Reg. xxv. t. 30; Brew. & Wats. 

 Bot. Calif, i. 13. P. Brownii & P. Californica, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 41. — Mostly in dry 



1 Louisiana, Dr. Carpenter. 



2 Recent literature: Hutli in Engl. Jahrb. xvi. 291 ; H. Bowers, Bot. Gaz. xvi. 73, t. 8. 



3 ^Y. apiifolia, var. ternata, Huth, 1. c. 320, is the not infrequent form or state with leaves merely 

 3-foliolate. 



