RANUNCULACEJE. 



COPTIS. 



Sepals 5-6, coloured, petaloid, deciduous. Petals small, cu- 

 cullate. Stamens 20-25. Capsules 6-10, on long stalks, some- 

 what stellate, membranous, ovate, oblong, tipped with the style, 

 4-6-seeded. 



27. C. trifolia Salisb. Linn, trans, viii. 305. Bigelow med. 

 Hot. i. t. 5. Helleborus trifolius Linn. sp. pi. 784. Fl. dan. 

 t. 566. Amam. acad. ii. t. iv. f. 18. Dark sphagnous swamps 

 in Canada and Siberia, and mountains to the southward. (Gold 

 thread.) 



Rhizomata, from which the name of gold thread is taken, perennial, 

 filiform, creeping, of a bright yellow colour, running in every direction. 

 New stems invested at the base with a number of yellowish, ovate, 

 acuminate scales. Leaves ternate, on long slender petioles ; leaflets 

 roundish, acute at base, lobed and crenate, smooth, firm, veiny ; the 

 crenatures acuminate. Scape slender, round, bearing one small, starry 

 white flower, and a minute, ovate, acute bract at some distance below. 

 Sepals 5, 6, or 7, oblong, concave, white. Petals 5, 6, or 7, inversely 

 conical, hollow, yellow at the mouth. Stamens numerous, white, with 

 capillary filaments and roundish anthers. Ovaries from 5 to 7, stipitate, 

 oblong, compressed ; styles recurved. Capsules stalked, oblong, com- 

 pressed, beaked, with numerous black oval seeds. Its rhizomata 

 afford a pure tonic bitter of great value, resembling quassia, gentian, 

 and calumba, without astringency. 



NIGELLA. 



Sepals 5, coloured petaloid, spreading, deciduous. Petals 

 small, 5-10, bilabiate, with a hollowed nectariferous claw. Sta- 

 mens numerous. Ovaries 5-10, more or less united at the 

 base, terminated by long simple styles. Capsules more or less 

 consolidated, beaked with the styles, opening by the ventral 

 suture, polyspermous ; with the putamen, which is membranous, 

 separating from the sarcocarp, and forming a large spurious cell 

 in the interior of each carpel. Leaves capillary, multifid, often 

 surrounding the flowers like an involucre. 



28. N. saliva Linn. sp. pi. 753. Fl. Grcec. t. 511. DC. 

 prodr. i. 49. N. segetalis Bieb. taur. cam. ii. 16. MtXav&ov, 

 Dioscorides. South of Europe, Barbary,the Levant, the Crimea, 

 Egypt, India, in fields. 



Stem erect, 1-2 ft. high, many-flowered, finely downy, especially 

 near the ground. Leaves capillary, cut into numerous fine segments, 

 not involucrating the flower ; petioles downy. Flowers naked, dirty 

 white. Anthers ovate, obtuse. Capsules muricated, united up to the 

 very point into an ovate fruit, terminated by 5 erect styles. Seeds 

 angular. Seeds aromatic, subacrid ; they were formerly employed 

 instead of pepper, and have also been used as carminatives. 



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