270 



DICOTYLEDONS. 



may be absent, or are very small. The stamens are numerous, 



as in the members of the crowfoot family. 



The pistils are also numerous, and the 



achenes in fruit are tipped with the long 



plumose style, which aids them in floating 



in the air. 



Fig. 354- 



Clematis virginiana ; below at right are pis- 

 tillate and staminate flowers. 



355- 

 Isopyrum biternatum. 



521. Some of the characters of the ranunculaceae we recognize 

 to be the following : The plants are mostly herbs, the petals are 

 separate, and when the corolla is absent the sepals are colored, 

 like a corolla. The stamens are numerous, and the pistils are 

 either numerous or few, but they are always separate from each 

 other, that is they are not fused into a single pistil (though some- 

 times there is but one pistil). All the parts of the flower are 

 separate from each other, and make up successive whorls, the 

 pistils terminating the series. When the seeds are ripe the fruit 

 is formed, and may be in the form of a pod, or achene, or in the 

 form of a berry, as in the baneberry (actaea). 



