

RANUNCULACE-iE. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 35 



Tribe III. HELL.EBOKE^E. Sepals imbricated in the bud, rarely persistent, petal- 

 like. Petals often nectariferous or reduced to staminodia or none. Pods (follicles) or 

 berries (in n. 20, 21) few, rarely single, few -many-seeded. Leaves alternate. 



* Ovules and commonly seeds more than one pair. Herbs. 



*- Flowers regular, not racemose. Pet.-ils inconspicuous nectaries or slender or none. Sepals 



tardily deciduous. 



10. Isopyrum. Petals none. Sepals broad, white. Pods few. Leaves compound. 



11. Caltha. Petals none. Sepals broad, yellow. Leaves kidney-shaped, undivided. 



12. Trolling. Petals 0-20, narrow, pitted above the base. Pods sessile. Leaves pal- 



mately lobed. 



13. Coptls. Petals 5-G, small, hollowed at apex, white. Pods long-stalked. Leaves 



radical, trifoliolate. 



14. Hellebores. Petals small, tubular, 2-lipped. Sepals 5, broad, persistent and turning 



green. Pods sessile. 



15. Eranthis. Petals small 2-lipped nectaries. Sepals 5 - 8, narrow, deciduous. Flower 



solitary, involucrate. 



1- -i- Sepals and large spur-shaped petals regular, each 5. 



16. Aqnilegia. Pistils 5, with slender styles. Leaves ternately compound. 



<- -i- -i- Flowers nnsymmetrical and irregular. Sepals 5. 



17. Delphinium. Vpper sepal spurred. Petals 4, of two forms; the upper pair with 



long spurs, i iidosed in the spur of the calyx. 



IS. Aconitum. Upper sepal hooded, covering the two long-clawed small petals. 

 -H- *- *- - Flowers regular, r.u i nu^r Sepals caducous. Petals very small, stamen-like, or 



none Leaves decompound. 



19. Cimicifuga. Flowers in long often paniculate racemes. Pistils 1-8, becoming 



many-seeded pods. 



20. Actaea. Flowers in a single short raceme. Pistil single, forming a many-seeded 



berry. 



Ovules a single pair. Flowers regular. Roots yellow and bitter. 



21. Hyelrastis. Flowers solitary. Sepals 3, petal-like, caducous. Petals none. Sta- 



mens numerous. Pistils several, l.rroiniiii.' 2-sceded berries. Leaves simple. 1"! 



22. Xanthorrhiza. Flowers in compound racemes. Sepals 5. Petals 5, small, 2-lobed, 



with claws. Stamens 5 -10. Pods 1 -seeded. Shrub with pinnate leaves. 



1. CLEMATIS, L. VIRGIN'S-BOWER. 



Sepals 4, or rarely more, colored, the v:ilv;itc margins turned inward in the 

 luid. Petals none up small. Achenes numerous in a head, hearing the per- 

 sistent styles as naked, hairy, or plumose tails. Perennial herbs or vines, 

 mostly a little woody, and climbing hy the bending "r clasping of the leaf- 

 stalks, rarely low and erect. Leaves opposite. (KATJ/UOT/S, a name of Diosco- 

 rides for a climbing plant with long and lithe branches.) 



1. FLAMMULA. Flmrr-rs cymbse-paniculate, rather small, in our species 

 dicccious. Sepals petaloid, whitish, spreading, thin. I'ctals none. Anthi rs 

 short, blunt. 



1. C. Virginiana, L. (COMMON VIRCIX'S-BOWER.) Smooth; leaves 

 hearing 3 ovate acute leaflets, which are cut or lohed, and somewhat heart- 

 shaped at the base; tails of the fruit plumose. River-banks, etc., common; 

 climbing over shrubs. July, August. 



2. C. ligusticifolia, Nutt. Very similar, hut the leaves 5-foliolate or 

 quinate-ternate. Long Pine, Neb., and west to the Pacific. 



