PARSLEY FAMILY. Utnbelliferx. 



Sanicle or 



A small, creeping marsh plant, with a 

 Pennywort weak, pale green, smooth stem, which fre- 

 Hydrocotyle quently takes root at the joints, and a 

 Americana round-heart-shaped, light green leaf, thin, 

 Dull white smooth, and shining, the edge doubly scal- 

 ugus lope^ an( j the stem about an inch long. 

 The tiny white flowers, 1-5 in a cluster, are inconspicu- 

 ous and grow at the angles of the leaves. In wet places, 

 Me., south to Pa., and N. Car., west to Minn, and Mo. 



The green stem is smooth, light green, 



slightly grooved, and hollow like most of 



Snakeroot * ne members of the Parsley Family. The 



Sanicula leaves are deep green of a bluish tone, 



Marylandica smooth, toothed, and palm-shaped, that is 



Oreenish with radiating lance-shaped leaflets, ar- 



yellow 



May-July ranged like those of the horse-chestnut ; of 



the five leaflets the lower two are deeply 

 cleft ; the upper leaves are in three divisions and stem- 

 less. The tiny pale greenish yellow flowers are in very 

 small clusters ; the five petals of each floret are curiously 

 incurved toward the centre of the flower, and beneath 

 them are the five stamens securely restrained from ac- 

 complishing the process of self-fertilization ; later the 

 petals unfold ; the flowers are both staminate and per- 

 fect, intermixed. In the few perfect flowers the two 

 mature styles protrude beyond the petals, and the visit- 

 ing insect must brush against them, generally after hav- 

 ing visited some staminate flower. Cross- fertilization 

 now completed, the styles curve backward so that the 

 ■withering stigmas are safely out of the way of the ma- 

 turing stamens, which are not released from the enfold- 

 ing petals until the anthers begin to shed their pollen. 

 The long stamens of the sterile flowers mature early, 

 and are a conspicuous factor in the green-yellow color- 

 ing of the flower-clusters. The fruit, a tiny ovoid bur 

 with many hooked bristles, often retains the recurved 

 slender styles. Visited by the Syrphid flies, the bees, 

 and a few butterflies. 18-38 inches high. In rich wood- 

 lands. Me., south to Ga., west to Minn, and Kan. 



316 



