26 RANUNCULACE^E. CIMICIFUGA. 



ACT^EA. 



14 CIMICIFUGA L, Amoen. Acad. viii, 193 t. 4. 



Tall perennial herbs with ample ternately compound leaves 

 and small white flowers in paniculate racemes in summer. Sep- 

 als 4-6, falling soon after the flower opens. Petals 1-8, or nojie, 

 small, with short, claws. Stamens numerous. Follicles 1-8, 

 many- seeded. 



C. elata Nutt. T. & G. Fl. i, 36. Canescently pubescent or the pani- 

 cle tomentose and glandular, 4-8 feet high ; leaves ample ; leaflets thin 2-4 

 inches in diameter, 5-7 lobed, segments acute, coarsely cuspidate- 

 serrate: petals none: filaments equal: pistils 2-5 in the early 

 flowers, only one in the later ones, glabrous or minutely glandu- 

 lar; follicles sessile, 4 lines long, obtuse, 6-10 seeded: seeds terete 

 transversely rugose. In woodlands Willamette valley to Puget Sound. 



C. laciniata Watson Proc. Am. Acad. xx, 352. Glabrous or the pani- 

 cle tomentose: 3-5 feet high : leaves ample, ternate, the divisions 3-parted 

 or deeply 3-lobed, the acuminate segments coarsely laciniate-toothed : pet- 

 als usually present: filaments unequal: pistils 2-5 pubescent; follicles stip- 

 itate 4-5 lines long, 68 seeded: seeds flat linear, light brown, scaly. 

 Lost Lake, north side of Mount Hood. Rare. 



+ -*- Fruit a one-celled, many-seeded berry. 

 15 ACT^EA L. Gen. n. 644. 



Tall perennial herbs with alternate, triternately decompound 

 leaves and small white flowers in short terminal racemes. Sep- 

 als 5-6, nearly equal, petaloid, caducous. Petals 4-10, or none, 

 less showy than the numerous white filaments. Carpel solitary, 

 sessile, covered with a broad and obscurely 2-lobed depressed 

 stigma, becoming a berry filled with smooth flattened seeds 

 packed horizontally in two rows. 



A. arguta Nutt. T. & G. Fl. i. 35. Stems 1-6 feet high from a fascicle 

 of short branching roots, 1-3 leaved ; leaves ternately or quinately decom- 

 pound: leaflets ovate to oblong, often obscurely 3-lobed, acuminate, irregu- 

 larly incised-dentate : racemes oblong, sometimes divided toward the base, 

 loose : pedicels longer than the flowers, filiform, scarcely thickened in fruit : 

 petals obleng, obtuse, shorter than the stamens : berries red or 

 white subglobose. Common in forests from California to Alaska and the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



A. rufora Wild. Enum. 561. Stems about 2 feet high: leaves ter- 

 nately decompound; leaflets ovate, acuminate, 1-2 inches long, unequally 

 and incisely serrate, the terminal one often 3-cleft : racemes broadly ovate 

 or hemispherical: pedicels longer than the flowers, scarcely any thicker in 

 fruit : sepals 4 greenish, ovate petals 3-10, rhombic-ovate, acute, shorter 

 than the stamens: berries bright cherry-red, shining, subovate. 

 Craig Mountains, northern Idaho (Sandberg n. 235), to the Atlantic 

 States and Canada. 



Tribe 5. Pseoniese DC. Prod. i. 64. Sepals herbaceous, imbri- 

 cated in the bud, persistent. Carpels few, many ovuled. 



16 P^EONIA Tourn. Inst. 273 t. 146. L. Gen. n. 678. 



Herbs or low shrubs with tuberous roots, alternate, triter- 

 nately compound or divided leaves and large solitary flowers 

 terminating the stems or branches. Sepals 5, strongly imbri- 



