BUTTERCUP FAMILY 89 



or kidney-shaped, with crenate, dentate, or nearly entire margins; 

 the broad oval sepals bright yellow. Swamps or wet ground. 



IX. P^ONIA L. 



Perennial, from thick, fleshy roots ; stems shrubby or her- 

 baceous. Leaves much divided. Flowers terminal, large and 

 showy. Sepals 5, leaf-like and persistent. Petals 5 or more. 

 Pistils 3-5 ; ovaries surrounded by a disk.* 



1. P. officinalis L. GARDEN PEONY. Herbaceous; flowering stems 

 1-2 ft. high. Leaves ample ; leaflets lance-ovate, cut or incised, smooth. 

 Flowers double, white or red. Follicles 2, erect, many-seeded. Com- 

 mon in gardens.* 



X. COPTIS Salisb. 



Low, smooth perennials, with 3-divided basal leaves. Flowers 

 small, white, on scapes. Sepals 5-7, petal-like, soon falling. 

 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 Salisb. GOLD THREAD. 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 evergeen. Damp, cold woods and bogs. 



XI. AQUILEGIA L. 



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. WILD COLUMBINE. Flowers scarlet without, 

 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. Cultivated 

 from Europe, and sometimes become wild. 



XH. DELPHINIUM L. 



Annual or perennial herbs. Stem erect, simple or branched. 

 Leaves alternate, petioled, palmately divided. Flowers in 



