118 KEY AND FLOE A 



flowers are so much alike that the different genera and 

 species are to be distinguished from each other chiefly by 

 the characteristics of the fruit. 



I. SANIC'ULA, Snakeroot, Sanicle 



Leaves palmately lobed or pinnately divided. Umbels 

 simple or imperfectly compound, with flowers sessile or on 

 short pedicels. Bracts of the involucre leafy, toothed ; those 

 of the involucels small, entire. Fruit covered with hooked 

 prickles or tubercles. Seeds round, with oil tubes more or less 

 obscure. 



a. S. arctopoi'des H. & A. YELLOW MATS, FOOTSTEPS OF SPRING. 

 Stems prostrate, branching from the base. Leaves deeply 3-lobed, 

 with the divisions raggedly cleft. Fruit on short pedicels. This 

 is very conspicuous in early spring, dotting the ground with its small 

 mat of yellowish green Jlowers and leaves, during the rainy season. It 

 is generally in bloom early in January. Throughout California. 



b. S. bipinnatif'ida Dougl. PURPLE SANICLE, NIGGER-BABIES. 

 Erect, with lower leaves opposite, upper alternate, pinnately 

 3-5-parted, with the divisions toothed or lobed (generally the 

 teeth are tipped with bristles). Flowers purplish, in umbels with 3 

 or 4 elongated rays. Throughout California. 



c. S. tubero'sa Torr. Stems low from a small tuberous root. Leaves 

 finely dissected. Involucre with 1-4 rays, leafy; involucels small, 

 unequally lobed. Heads small. Flowers yellow. Fruit covered 

 with tubercles instead of prickles. Widely distributed, often growing 

 on stony hills. There is a disagreeable odor about the plant. 



II. HERACLE'UM, Cow Parsnip 



This is a stout, tall herb with large thrice-compound leaves. 

 Leaflets broad, deeply and irregularly toothed. Umbels large, 

 compound, with many-leaved involucels. Calyx teeth small 

 or none. Petals white, conspicuous, the outer ones 2-cleft and 

 larger than the inner. Fruit tipped with a thick conical 

 enlargement of the style, with 3 blunt ribs on the outside of 

 each carpel, and a large oil tube in each interval between the 

 ribs. Seeds flat. 



H. lana'tum Michx. This is the only species. The stem is gen- 

 erally woolly. It grows everywhere not far from water. 



