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4. ACT^EA RACEMOSA 



AMERICAN HERB CHRISTOPHER. 



THIS genus comprehends plants of the Herb Christopher or 

 Baneberry kind, which are hardy herbaceous perennials, of tall 

 growth. 



It belongs to the class and order Polyandria Monogynia, and 

 ranks in the natural order of Multisiliqute. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a perianthium of four 

 leaves, with roundish, obtuse, concave, and caducous leaflets: the 

 corolla has four petals, acuminate at both ends, longer than the 

 calyx, and caducous: the stamina consist of numerous, usually 

 about thirty, papillary filaments, broader at top: the anthera are 

 roundish, twin, and erect: the pistillum has a superior ovate ger- 

 men, no style, and a thickish, obliquely-depressed stigma: the peri- 

 carpium is an oval-globose, smooth, one-furrowed, and one-celled 

 berry; and the seeds are many, semi-orbicular, and lying over each 

 other in two rows. 



The species that chiefly deserve notice for the purpose of culti- 

 vation are: 1. A. spicata, Common-spiked, Black-berried Herb 

 Christopher ; 2. A. racemosa, Clustered, Long-spiked, American 

 Herb Christopher. 



The first sort grows two feet and a half high, the footstalks of the 

 leaves rising from the root; these divide into three smaller footstalks, 

 each of which divides again into three, and these have each three 

 lobes, so that each leaf is composed of twenty-seven lobes or small 

 leaves. And the flower-stem which rises from the root has leaves of 

 the same form, but smaller. On the top of the stalk appear the 



