THALICTRUM DIOICUM 



EARLY MEADOW-RUE. 



NATURAL ORDER, RANUNCULACE/E. 



:alictrum dioicum, L. — Smooth and pale or glaucous; i to 2 feet high; leaves all with 

 general petioles ; leaflets drooping, rounded, and 3- to 7-lobed ; flowers purplish and 

 greenish ; the yellowish anthers linear, mucronate, drooping on fine capillary filaments. 

 (Gray's Manual of Botany of the Northern States. See also Torrey & Gray's Flora cf 

 United States, Chapman's Flora of the Southern States, W'ood's Class-Booh of Botany, etc.) 



ODERN botanists have been puzzled to account for the 

 derivation of the name Thalictrum. Sir William Hooker 

 supposed it might be from the Greek word thallo, signifying 

 "green" or "luxuriant"; but those who have succeeded him tell 

 us it is of " obscure derivation." Pliny refers to a plant known in 

 his time as Thalictrum, and it is not unlikely that our present 

 botanical name is identical with this old Roman name (the c in the 

 modern appellation being simply a misprint for c), although the 

 latter is said to have belonged to a plant with some reputation 

 as an "all-heal," while none of the species have any medical 

 virtues, with the exception of perhaps one, which was used as a 

 plaster in some forms of rheumatism and similar troubles, until 

 superseded by Arnica. Many an old name has been adopted by 

 the moderns on a still more slender foundation. The common 

 name is " Meadow -Rue," from a fancied resemblance in the 

 leaves to the common garden herb of this name, with " Meadow " 

 as indicating the places in which it loves to grow. The Meadow- 

 Rue proper, however, is one of the European forms, while our 



