DICOTYLEDONS: RAN ALES. 



675 



or are very small. The stamens are numerous, as in the mem- 

 bers 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. 



Some of the characters of the Ranun- 

 culaceae we recognize to be the following: 



Fig. 562. 



Clematis virginiana ; below at right are 

 pistillate and staminate flowers. 



Fig. 563- 

 Isopyrurrt biternatum. 



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 sometimes 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). 



