RANUNCULACEAE OF IOWA. 135 



Winneshiek county. We have observed it in Allamakee, 

 Clayton, and Scott counties. The State University herbarium 

 has additional specimens from Des Moines, Webster, Dallas, 

 Dickinson, and Cerro Gordo counties. Prof. Bessey re- 

 ports the species from Story and Fayette counties. The 

 former locality is confirmed by Prof. Hitchcock and the 

 latter by Prof. Fink. The species is reported from Scott 

 county by Messrs. Barnes, Reppert and Miller. 



Arthur, Contr. to the Flora of Iowa, p. 5, 1876; Bessey, Contr. to the 

 Flora of Iowa in Fourth Report Iowa Agr. Coll., p. 90, 1872; Hitchcock, 

 Proc. St. Iyouis Acad, of Science, vol. 5, p, 482; Fink, Proc. Iowa Acad, 

 of Sciences, vol. 4, p. 83; Fitzpatrick, Proc. Iowa Acad, of Sciences, 

 vol. 5, p. 108; Manual of the Flowering- Plants of Iowa, p. 3; Halsted, 

 Bull. Iowa Agr. Coll., Nov. 1886, p. 48; 1888, p. 36; Barnes, Reppert and 

 Miller, Proc. Davenport Acad, of Nat. Sciences, vol. 8, p. 200. 



Thaeictrum purpurascens L. Sp. PL, p. 546. 1753. 



Perennial, stem 2-6 feet high, branching above, fre- 

 quently purplish, pubescent or glabrous; leaves 3-4-ter- 

 nate, the cauline nearly sessile; leaflets thick, oblong-ovate 

 to nearly lanceolate, veiny, often waxy beneath, usually 

 with three apical lobes; flowers greenish or purplish, dioe- 

 cious or polygamous, in a compound panicle; filaments 

 narrow, anthers linear or linear-oblong, cuspidate; stigma 

 linear, persistent; achenes ovoid, pubescent or glabrous, 

 short-stipitate, with 6-8 longitudinal wings. 



This species is common in low prairies and woods 

 throughout Iowa, flowering in May and June. It ranges 

 westward to Arizona and northward to the Saskatchewan, 

 eastward to Nova Scotia and Anticosti, southward to Flor- 

 ida. The form with the leaflets waxy beneath is called 

 variety cerifcrum, Austin in Gray's Manual, p. 39, 5th ed- 

 ition, 1867. 



Our specimens are from Winneshiek, Allamakee, Musca- 

 tine, Johnson, Appanoose, Decatur, Ringgold, Union, 

 Fremont, Pottawattamie, Shelby, and Sioux counties. The 

 State University herbarium has specimens from the addi- 

 tional counties of Henry, Des Moines, Lee, Linn, Calhoun, 



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