DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 79 
IV. COPTIS, Salisb. 
Low, smooth perennials with 3-divided root-leaves. Flowers 
small, white, on scapes. Sepals 5-7, petal-like, soon fall- 
ing. Petals 5-7, small, club-shaped, tubular at the apex. 
Stamens 15-25. Pistils 3-7, stalked. Pods thin and dry, 
4_-8-seeded. 
1. C. trifolia, Salish. Gotp TuHreAp. A pretty, delicate plant, 
with slender, 1-flowered scapes, from long, bright-yellow, thread-like 
rootstocks, which are bitter and somewhat medicinal. Leaves later 
than the flowers, each of 3 wedge-shaped leaflets, which finally 
become shining and evergreen. Damp, cold woods and bogs. 
V. ACTA, L. 
Perennial ; stem simple. Leaves 2—3, compound in threes. 
Leaflets ovate, sharply cut or toothed. Flowers white, in a 
short and thick terminal raceme. Sepals 4-5, soon decidu- 
ous. Petals 4-10, small. Pistil single ; stigma 2-lobed. 
Fruit a many-seeded berry.* 
1. A. alba, Bigelh BANEBERRY. Stem erect, smooth or nearly so, 
18-24 in. high. Leaves large and spreading; leaflets thin. Racemes 
very broad. Petals slender, truncate. Pedicels red, thickened in 
fruiting; berries white. In rich woods, more common S.* 
2. A. spicata, var. rubra, Ait. Rep BANEBERRY. Stem about 
2 ft. high. Raceme ovoid or hemispherical. Petals acute. Pedicels 
slender. Berries usually red, sometimes white, ovoid. Common N. 
VI. AQUILEGIA, Tourn. 
Perennials with leaves twice or thrice palmately compound, 
the divisions in threes. 
Sepals 5, petal-like, all similar. Petals 5, all similar, each 
consisting of an expanded portion, prolonged backward into 
a hollow spur, the whole much longer than the calyx. Pistils 
5, forming many-seeded pods. 
1. A. canadensis, L. Witp CoLtumBINr. Flowers scarlet with- 
out, yellow within, nodding; spurs rather long. 
2. A. vulgaris, L. GARDEN COLUMBINE. Flowers often double 
and white, blue, or purple. Spurs shorter and more hooked. Cul- 
tivated from Europe, and sometimes become wild. 
