CROWFOOT FAMILY 357 



3. ANEMONfiLLA. RUE ANEMONE. 



Attractive slender perennial herb, resembling Anemone: basal leaves 

 2 or 3 times compound: involucre of 3 compound leaves at base of the 

 umbel: leaflets petioled: flowers in a terminal umbel, on slender pedicels; 

 petals wanting; sepals 5-10, white or pinkish, 1 in. broad, petal-like; pistils 

 4-15; stigma broad, sessile on carpels, glabrous and deeply grooved. 



A. thalictroides, Spach. Rue anemone. Stem slender, 6-10 in., appear- 

 ing in earliest spring before the 2-3 ternately compound basal leaves, rising 

 from a cluster of tuberous roots: sepals 5-10, bright, quite lasting. A com- 

 mon spring flower of the woodland, appearing with the Wood Anemone or 

 Windflower and easily confused with it. 



4. THALfCTRUM. MEADOW RUE. 



Mostly smooth perennial herbs, erect, sometimes several feet high : 

 panicled flowers small, greenish and inconspicuous, often dioecious, or 

 polygamous: foliage light, graceful, the alternate leaves being 2-4 ternately 

 compound, with the leaflets and divisions stalked: calyx of 4-5 petal-like 

 greenish sepals, soon falling; stamens many; ovaries 4-15, 1-seeded. 



T. dioicum, Linn. Early meadow rue. Flowers dioecious, green or pur- 

 plish, in loose panicles: leaflets thin and delicate, 3-7-lobed, pale beneath, 

 somewhat drooping on the petiolules: anthers yellow, drooping on thread- 

 like filaments: achenes about 8, sessile or nearly so: 1-2 ft. high. Common 

 in woodlands. April and May. 



T. polygamum, Muhl. Tall meadow rue. Coarser, ranker and later than 

 T. dioicum, 4-8 ft. high: filaments of stamens broad, spatulate: achenes 

 stalked: flowers polygamous, sepals white. 



T. dasycarpum, Fisch. & Lall. Purplish meadow rue. Stem 2-5 ft. high, 

 usually purplish: stem-leaves almost sessile: leaflets thick, dark green above, 

 pale and waxy or downy beneath, margins slightly rolled or thickened: 

 flowers polygamous or dioecious, greenish and purplish: anthers drooping 

 on filiform filaments. June to August. 



5. RANUNCULUS. CROWFOOT. BUTTERCUP. Figs. 202, 203, 207, 268. 



Perennials or annuals, with mostly yellow flowers; sepals 5; petals 5 

 and bearing a little pit or scale at the base inside: leaves alternate: achenes 

 many in a head. 



R. acris, Linn. Tall buttercup. Two to 3 ft., from a fibrous root: leaves 

 3-parted, all the divisions sessile and again 3-cleft: flowers bright yellow. 

 Europe, but now a common weed. Summer. 



R. bulbosus, Linn. Earlier and only half as tall, from a bulbous base: 

 leaves 3-parted, the lateral divisions sessile and the terminal one stalked: 

 peduncles furrowed: flowers bright yellow. Europe; common eastward. 



R. septentrionalis, Poir. Stems more or less prostrate at base, often 

 forming long runners: leaves 3-divided, divisions all stalked and 3-lobed or 

 -parted: petals obovate, yellow. Wet places. 



R. abortivus, Linn. Glabrous, biennial herb; 6 in. to 2 ft., branching: 

 basal leaves heart-shaped or kidney-form, crenate (sometimes lobed), on 



