438 PLANTS AND MAN 



also spurred. Most of our native species are found in the South 

 and the West; the flowers are white, scarlet or blue. 



Other genera of the Buttercup Family have flowers which lack 

 petals, so that the sepals are the colored part of the flower; in this 

 group we find meadow rue, hepatica, anemone, marsh marigold 

 and Pasque flower {h.^. 262). Meadow^ rue is a rather bushy 

 plant with pendant flowers whose long stamens are more con- 

 spicuous than the four or five small greenish sepals; the early 

 meadow rue common to rocky woods throughout the entire 

 eastern states has compound leaves with small lobed leaflets. A 

 taller fall meadow rue found in wet meadows is recognized by its 

 large clusters of purplish or white flowers. Hepatica, also known 

 as overleaf, is one of the earliest spring flowers of the eastern 

 states; its leaves are three-lobed, and its flowers characterized by 

 six to twelve blue, lavender, pink or white sepals. On the prairies 

 of our central states grows the Pasque flower or wild crocus 

 which, like the hepatica, is a low-growing plant; however it has 

 compound leaves and solitary flowers, each with five to seven 

 blue or white sepals. Anemones include a great number of species 

 growing in the mountainous regions of the northern states; their 

 compound leaves are segmented or lobed, and the flowers are 

 showy even though there are no true petals. In the woods of our 

 northeastern states is found the tall anemone or thimbleweed 

 whose white flowers may reach a diameter of an inch or more. 

 Other eastern species include the smaller Canada anemone, and 

 the even smaller wood anemone whose flowers have four to nine 

 purple-tinted white sepals. On dry western mountain slopes we 

 find the western windflower, while in the prairie states are nu- 

 merous species of anemones which are common in wet meadows. 

 Marsh marigold or cowslip is a familiar spring flower in 

 swampy woods of northeastern United States where its clusters 

 of golden yellow flowers provide a cheery note amid the neutral 

 browns of the late winter vegetation. Cowslips have large coarse 

 leaves and stout stems which bear flowers with five to fifteen large 

 colored sepals. 



The Poppy Family 



The Poppy Family (Papaveraceae) is characterized by plants 

 with a milky or colored sap and showy flowers. Blood root shares 



