RANTTNCULACi^. (CROWFOOT JFA3IILY.J 7 



polygamous: sepals 4-5, falling aioay early: fruits seisile, tipped with long stig- 

 mas, ribbed-angled. 



2. T. dioicuin, L. (Early Meadow-Rue.) Leaves all with general 

 petioles ; leaflets rounded and 5 - 7-lobed ; flowers in compound panicles, green- 

 ish. — Rocky woods and hill-sides ; common northward. April, May. — A foot 

 or so high, with very pale and delicate foliage, and slender yellowish anthers on 

 capillary filaments. 



3, T. Corilllti, L. (Meadow-Rue.) Stem-leaves icithcut general peti- 

 oles ; leaflets 3-lobed at the apex, the lobes acutish ; flowers in very compound 

 large panicles, white. — Meadows and along streams. June, July. — Stem 

 3°-9° high, furrowed. Leaves whitish and glandular, or downy beneath. Fila- 

 ments slightly club-shaped ; anthers oblong. 



7. TBAUTVETTEBIA, Fischer & Meyer. False Bugbane. 



Sepals 4 or 5, concave, petal-like, very caducous. Petals none. Achenia 

 numerous, in a head, membranaceous, compressed-4-angled and inflated. Seed 

 erect. — A perennial herb, with palmately-lobcd leaves, all alternate, and corym- 

 bose (white) flowers. (Dedicated to Prof. Trautvetter, a Russian botanist.) 



1. X. palMiata, Fischer & Meyer. (Cimicifitga palmata, Michx.) 

 Woods, along streams, Virginia and Kentucky along the mountains : also spar- 

 ingly in Ohio and Rlinois. July, Aug. — Root-leaves large, 5 - 9-lobed ; the 

 lobes toothed and cut. Stems 2° -3° high. 



8. EA1VIJNCIILUS, L. Crowfoot. Buttercup. 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, flat, with a little pit or scale at the base inside. Ache- 

 nia numerous, in a head, mostly flattened, pointed ; the seed erect. — Annuals 

 or perennials : stem-leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or somewhat corymbed, 

 yellow, rarely white. (Sepals and petals rarely only 3, the latter often more 

 than 5. Stamens occasionally few in number.) — (A Latin name for a little 

 frog ; also applied by Pliny to these plants, the aquatic species growing where 

 those animals abound.) 



§ 1. BATRACHIUM, DC. — Petals with a pore or naked pit at the base, white, 

 the claw yellow : achenia turgid, transversely wrinkled: aquatic perennials, with 

 the immersed foliage dissected into capillary lobes. 



1. R. aquatilis, L., var. divaricatns. (White Water-Crow- 

 foot.) Floating ; leaves all immersed and similar, compoundly dissected into 

 many capillary lobes, which are rather rigid, and all widely spreading in a hori- 

 zontal plane, making an orbicular outline ; petals obovate, much longer than 

 the calyx ; receptacle of fruit hispid. (R. divaricatns, Schrank. R. circinatus, 

 Sibthorp.) — Ponds and slow streams : common. June- Aug. (Eu.) 



§ 2. Petals ivith a little scale at the base (yellow in all our species). 



# Achenia smooth. 



-t- Aquatic, perennial : immersed leaves filiformly dissected. 



2. B. Pursllii, Richards. (Yellow Watkk-Crowfoot.) Stem 

 floating, with the leaves all dissected into several times forked capillar}' divfs 



