12 RANUNCULACE^. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



1. C t5'Sf«lia, Salisb. (Three-leaved Goldthread. \ Leaflets 3, 

 obovate-wedge-form, sharply toothed, obscurely 3-lobed; scape I -flowered.— 

 Bogs, abundant northward; extending south to Maryland along the mountains. 



M a y, Root of long, bright yellow, bitter fibres. Leaves evergreen, shining. 



Scape naked, slender, 3' -5' high. (Eu.) 



14. HELL^BOBUS, L. Hellebore. 



Sepals 5, petal-like or greenish, persistent. Petals 8-10, very small, tubu- 

 lar, 2-lipped. Pistils 3-10, sessile, forming coriaceous many-seeded pods. — 

 Perennial herbs of the Old World, with ample palmate or pedate leaves, and 

 large, solitary, nodding, early vernal flowers. (Name from iKelv, to injure, and 

 j3opa, food, from their well-known poisonous properties.) 



1. II. viridis, L. (Green Hellebore.) Root-leaves glabrous, pedate , 

 calyx spreading, greenish. — Near Brooklyn and Jamaica, Long Island. (Adv. 

 from Eu.) 



15. AQVILEG1A, Tourn. Columbine. 



Sepals 5, regular, colored like the petals. Petals 5, all alike, with a short 

 spreading lip, produced backwards into large hollow spurs, much longer than 

 the calyx. Pistils 5, with slender styles. Pods erect, many-seeded. — Peren- 

 nials, with 2 - 3-tcmately compound leaves, the leaflets lobed. Flowers large 

 and showy, terminating the branches. (Name from aquilu, an eagle, from some 

 fancied resemblance of the spurs to talons.) 



1. A. Canadensis, L. (Wild Columbine.) Spurs inflated, sud- 

 denly contracted towards the tip, nearly straight ; stamens and styles longer 

 than the ovate sepals. —Rocks, common. April- June. — Flowers 2' long, 

 scarlet, yellow inside, nodding, so that the spurs turn upward, but the stalk be- 

 comes upright in fruit. — More delicate and graceful than the 



A. vulgaris, L., the common Garden Columbine, from the Old World, 

 which is beginning to escape from cultivation in some places. 



16. DELPHINIUM, Tourn. Larkspur. 



Sepals 5, irregular, petal-like ; the upper one prolonged into a spur at the 

 base. Petals 4, irregular, the upper pair continued backwards into long spurs 

 which are enclosed in the spur of the calyx; the lower pair with short claws: 

 rarely only 2 united into one. Pistils 1 - 5, forming many-seeded pods in 

 fruit. —Leaves palmately divided or cut. Flowers in terminal racemes. (Name 

 from Delphin, in allusion to the shape of the flower, which is sometimes not un- 

 like the classical figures of the dolphin.) 



1. D. exaltaUim, Ait. (Tall Larkspur.) Leaves deeply 3-5- 

 cleft; the divisions narrow wedge-form, diverging, 3-cleft at the apex, acme; 

 racemes wand-like, panicled, many-flowered ; spur straight-, pods 3, erect. U — 

 Rich soil, Penn. to Michigan, and southward. July. — Stem 2° - 5° high. Low- 

 er leaves 4' - 5' broad. Flowers purplish-blue, downy. 



