YELLOW 



SPEARWORT. 



Ranunculus ambigens. Crowfoot Family. 



Stems. One to two feet high. Leaves. Oblong or lance-shaped, mostly 

 toothed, contracted into a half -clasping leaf -stalk. Flowers. Bright yel- 

 low, solitary or clustered. Calyx. Of five sepals. Corolla. Of five to 

 seven oblong petals. Stamens. Indefinite in number, occasionally few. 

 Pistils. Numerous in a head. 



Many weeks after the marsh marigolds have passed away, just 

 such marshy places as they affected are brightly flecked with gold. 

 Wondering, perhaps, if they can be flowering for the second 

 time in the season, we wade recklessly into the bog to rescue, 

 not the marsh marigold, but its near relation, the spearwort, 

 which is still more closely related to the buttercup, as a little 

 comparison of the two flowers will show. This plant is espe- 

 cially common at the North. 



INDIAN CUCUMBER-ROOT. 



Medeola Virginica. Lily Family. 



Root. Tuberous, shaped somewhat like a cucumber, with a suggestion 

 of its flavor. Stem. Slender, from one to three feet high, at first clothed 

 with wool. Leaves. In two whorls on the flowering plants, the lower of 

 five to nine oblong, pointed leaves set close to the stem, the upper usually of 

 three or four much smaller ones. Flowers. Greenish -yellow, small, clus- 

 tered, recurved, set close to the upper leaves. Perianth. Of three sepals 

 and three petals, oblong and alike. Stamens. Six, reddish-brown. Pis- 

 til. With three stigmas, long, recurved, and reddish-brown. Fruit. A 

 purple berry. 



One is more apt to pause in September to note the brilliant 

 foliage and purple berries of this little plant than to gather the 

 drooping inconspicuous blossoms for his bunch of wood-flowers 

 in June. The generic name is after the sorceress Medea, on ac- 

 count of its supposed medicinal virtues, of which, however, there 

 seems to be no record. 



The tuberous rootstock has the flavor, and something the 

 shape, of the cucumber, and was probably used as food by the 

 Indians. It would not be an uninteresting study to discover 

 which of our common wild plants are able to afford pleasant and 



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