48 RANUNCULACE^. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



Seeds smooth, flattened, and packed liorizontally in 2 rows. — Perennials, with 

 ample 2 - 3-teruately compound leaves, the ovate leaflets sharply cleft and 

 toothed, and a short and thick terminal raceme of white flowers. (From (XKTca, 

 actceo, ancient names of the elder, transferred by Linnseus.) 



1. A. spicata, L., var. rubra, Ait. (RedBaneberry.) Raceme ovate ; 

 petals rhomhic-spatulate, much shorter than the stamens; pedicels slender; 

 berries cherrij-red, or sometimes white, oval. — Rich woods, common, especially 

 northward. April, May —Plant 2° high. (Eu.) 



2. A. alba, Bigel, (White Baneberry.) Leaflets more incised and 

 sharply toothed ; raceme oblong ; petals slender, mostly truncate at the end, 

 appearing to be transformed stamens; pedicels thickened in fruit, as large as 

 the peduncle and red, the globular-oval berries white. — Rich woods, flowering 

 a week or two later than the other, and more common westward and soutli- 

 ward. — White berries rarely occur with slender pedicels, also red berries 

 with thick pedicels; but these are perhaps the result of crossing. 



21. HYDRASTIS, Ellis. Orange-root. Yellow Puccoon. 



Sepals 3, petal-like, falling away when the flower opens. Petals none. Pis- 

 tils 12 or more in a head, 2-ovuled ; stigma flat, 2 lipped. Ovaries becoming a 

 head of crimson 1 -2-seeded berries in fruit. — A low perennial herb, sending 

 up in early spring, from a thick and knotted yellow rootstock, a single radical 

 leaf and a simple hairy stem, which is 2-leaved near tlie summit and termi- 

 nated by a single greenish-wliite flower. (Name unmeaning.) 



1. H. Canadensis, L. (Golden Seal, etc.) Leaves rounded, heart- 

 shaped at t!io base, o-T-lobed, doubly serrate, veiny, when full grown in sum- 

 mer 4-9' wide. — Rich woods, N. Y. to Minn., and southward. 



22. XANTHORRHIZA, Marshall. Shrub Yellow-root. 



Sepals 5, regular, spreading, deciduous. Petals .5, much smaller than the 

 sepals, concave and obscurely 2-k)bed, raised on a claw. Stamens 5 to 10. 

 Pistils 5 - L5, with 2 pendulous ovules. Pods 1 -seeded, oblong, the short style 

 becoming dorsal. — A Ioav slirubby plant ; the bark and long roots deep yellow 

 and bitter. Flowers polygamous, brown purple, in compound drooping ra- 

 cemes, appearing along with the 1 - 2-pinuate leaves from large terminal 

 buds in early spring. (Name compounded of ^avQos, yellow, and piCa., root.) 



\. X. apilfolia, L'Her. Stems clustered, 1-2° high; leaflets cleft and 

 toothed. -^ Shady banks of streams, Penn. to S W. New York and Ky., and 

 south in the mountains. The rootstocks of this, and also of the last plant, 

 were used as a yellow dye by the aborigines. 



Nigella D.vMASctNA, L., the Fennel-flower, which offers a remarkable 

 exception in having the pistils partly united into a compound ovary, so as to 

 form a several-celled capsule, grows nearly spontaneously around gardens. 



