190 RANUNCULACEAE (BUTTERCUP FAMILY) 



1. CALTHA L. MARSH MARIGOLD 



Smooth perennial herbs with thickish somewhat succulent round or oblong 

 leaves with cordate base. Sepals large and petal-like, white or pink, early 

 deciduous. Petals none. Stamens numerous. Pistils several or many, becom- 

 ing follicles with several seeds. 



1. Caltha rotundifolia (Huth.) Greene, Pitt. 4: 80. 1899. Leaves all rad- 

 ical, rather thick and firm, broadly ovate, elliptic or oblong, cordate at base 

 with narrow sinus, entire or dentate, 3-8 cm. long: scapes 2-15 cm. high, 

 1-flowered: sepals 5-15, oblong or obovate, white (bluish without): filaments 

 flattened: follicles flattened and somewhat spreading. C. leptosepala. (C. 

 chionophila Greene 1. c.) Throughout our range and northwestward. 



2. TROLLIUS L. GLOBEFLOWER 



Perennial herbs with palmately parted or incised leaves, thickened fibrous 

 roots, and large solitary terminal flowers. Sepals 5-15, petal-like. Petals 

 5-15, small, narrow, with a minute nectariferous pit at the base. Stamens 

 numerous. Pistils several, many-ovuled. 



1. Trollius albiflorus (Gray) Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 152. 1900. 

 Stems slender, 1-2 dm. high: leaves palmately 5-7-parted, 4-8 cm. broad, 

 all petioled except the uppermost, the segments obovate, variously cleft or 

 toothed: flowers white, 2-4 cm. broad: sepals obovate: petals minute, much 

 shorter than the stamens: follicles many, flattened, many-seeded, tipped with 

 a divergent slender beak. Not infrequent at subalpine and higher stations 

 throughout our range. 



3. ACTAEA L. BANEBERRY 



Perennial herbs with leaves twice or thrice ternately compound. Flowers 

 numerous, white, in a simple raceme. Sepals caducous, small, 4-6, petal-like. 

 Petals small, 4-10. Stigma sessile, 2-lobed. Pistil 1, becoming a large some- 

 what poisonous berry with many seeds. 



Leaflets thin, sharply incised, the teeth acuminate . . . . . 1. A. arguta. 

 Leaflets thicker, the incisions few, the teeth rounded or mucronate . . 2. A. rubra. 



1. Actaea arguta Nutt. T. & G. Fl. 1 : 35. 1838. Glabrous or nearly so, erect, 

 bushy-branched, 3-6 dm. high: basal leaf long-petioled, ternate; the divisions 

 long-petioled, pinnate; leaflets ovate, 5-12 cm. long, sharply incised and 

 toothed, the teeth acute or acuminate: flowers white, numerous, in an ovoid 

 raceme which elongates in fruit: petals spatulate: berries 6-8 mm. long, oval 

 or subspherical, red or white. (A. eburnea Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 

 1: 153. 1900.) In rich soil of moist woods; New Mexico and far to the north 

 and west. 



2. Actaea rubra (Ait.) Willd. Enum.- 561. 1809. Very similar to the pre- 

 ceding, but the leaflets less sharply incised, the teeth mostly rounded or mu- 

 cronate, or acutish: petals rhombic-spatulate : berries smaller, cherry-red, or 

 sometimes white. (A. viridiflora Greene, Pitt. 2: 108. 1890.) Northeastern 

 Wyoming, northward and eastward. 



4. AQUILEGIA L. COLUMBINE 



Perennial herbs, with leaflets twice or thrice ternately compound, the 

 leaflets lobed. Sepals 5, petaloid, deciduous. Petals of the same number, the 

 blade small, each produced backward between the sepals as a large hollow 

 spur. Stamens indefinite, some of the inner sterile and dilated-petaloid or re- 

 duced to scarious scales. Pistils 5; the ovules numerous, in two rows. 



