48 RANUNCULACE^E. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



Seeds smooth, flattened, and packed horizontally in '2 rows. Perennials, with 

 ample 2-3-teruately compound leaves, the ovate leaflets sharply deft and 

 toothed, and a short and thick terminal raceme of white flowers. (From d/crca, 

 actcea, ancient names of the elder, transferred by Linnanis.) 



1. A. spicata, L., var. rilbra, Ait. (\li :i> I;\M .i:i:i:i:v.) Rac fine ovate ; 

 petals rhombic-spatnlate, much shorter than the stamens; fiedicels slender; 

 berries cherry-red, or sometimes white, oval. Hich woods, common, especially 

 northward. April, .May --Plant 2 high. (Eu.) 



2. A. alba, Bigel. (WHITE BANKI:KHI;Y.) Leaflets more incised and 

 sharply toothed; run me vblong ; pet<i!x snnilir, mostly truncate at the end, 

 appearing to be transformed stamens; pedicels thickened in fruit, as large as 

 the peduncle and red. the globular-oval / rrim irhiti . Rich woods, flowering 

 a week or two later than the other, and nioie eonnnon westward and south- 

 ward. AVhite berries rarely occur \\itli slender pedicels, also red berries 

 with thick pedicels; but these are perhaps the result of crossing. 



21. HYDRASTIS, Kllis. OBANGE-ROOT. YI.I.I...W PUCCOON. 



Sepals 3, petal-like, falling away when the flower opens. Petals none. Pis- 

 tils \-2 or more in a head. 2-ovuled ; stigma flat, :.' lipped. ( (varies becoming a 

 head of crimson l -2-seeileil berries in fruit. A low perennial herb, sending 

 np in early spring, from a thick and knotted yellow rootstoek, a single radical 

 leaf and a simple hairy stein, which is L'-lea\ed near the summit and termi- 

 nated by a single greenish-white flower. (Name unmeaning.) 



1. H. Canadensis, L. ((;<>LIKX SI.M, etc.) Leaves rounded, heart- 

 shaped at the base. 5 - 7-lolied, doubly serrate, veinv, when full grown in sum- 

 mer 4-9' wide. Rich woods, X. Y. to Minn., and southward. 



22. XANTHORRHIZA, Marshall. SHIM M YKM.OW-ROOT. 



Sepals 5, regular, spreading, deciduoog. Petals 5, much smaller than the 

 sepals, concave and obscurely 2-lohed, raised on a claw. Stamens 5 to 10. 

 Pistils 5-15, with 2 pendulous ovules. Pods 1 -seeded, oblong, the short style 

 becoming dorsal. A low shrubby plant ; the bark and long roots deep yellow 

 and bitter. Flowers polygamous, brown purple, in compound drooping ra- 

 cemes, appearing along with the 1-2-pinnate leaves from large terminal 

 huds in early spring. (Name compounded ,,f |ai/0o'j, i/ellow, and filfa, root.) 



L X. apilfdlia, L'ller. Stems clustered. 1-2 high; leaflets cleft and 

 toothed. Shady banks of streams, Penn. to S \Y. New York and Ky., and 

 south in the mountains. The root stocks of this, and also of the last plant, 

 were used as a yellow dye by the aborigines. 



NIGELLA D.vMAScfexA, L., the FENNEL-FLOWER, which offers a remarkable 

 exception in having the pistils partly united into a compound ovary, so as to 

 form a several-celled capsule, grows nearly spontaneously around gardens. 



