PLATE XLIX. 



1. SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS. 



CANADA PUCCOON. 



THIS genus contains a plant of the low herbaceous flowering 

 kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Polyandria Monogynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Rhoeadece. 



The characters are: that the calyx -is a two-leaved perianth, 

 ovate, concave, shorter than the corolla, caducous : the corolla ha s 

 eight petals, oblong, blunt, spreading very much, alternately interior 

 and narrower: the stamina have very many filaments, simple, shorter 

 than the corolla: anthers simple: the pistillum is an oblong com- 

 pressed germ: style none: stigma thickish, two-grooved with a streak, 

 height of the stamens, permanent : the pericarpium is an oblong cap- 

 sule, ventricose, sharp at both ends, two-valved: the seeds very many, 

 round, acuminate 



The species is S. Canadensis, Canadian Sanguinaria, Bloodwort, 

 or Puccoon. 



It has a tuberous, thick, fleshy root, placed transversely, with 

 several slender fibres descending from it, of a reddish saffron colour, 

 and yielding a juice of the same hue, which is bitter and acrid, and 

 flows also from the leaves and footstalks when cut. In the spring 

 the root puts forth slender round smooth steins, palish green or 

 brownish tinged with purple, each terminated by a little conical 

 head, which expands into a white flower of eight petals, at first con- 

 cave, then flat, and finally rolled back so as to be convex, marked 

 with slender streaks : filaments white, with saffron-coloured anthers. 

 When the flowers are about expanding, a single leaf comes out upon 



