310 THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



4. CALTHA. Marsh Marigold. Cowslip (in America). 



Low tufted herbs with undivided leaves, and clusters of yellow butter- 

 cup-like flowers: sepals 5-9, petal-like: petals none: pistils 5-10, ripening 

 into several-seeded follicles. 



C. palustris, Linn. About 1 ft. high: leaves rounded or kidney-shaped, 

 crenate or nearly entire. Wet places, in early spring. Used for "greens." 



5. AQUILEGIA. Columbine. 



Upright herbs, with compound leaves which have petioles expanded 

 at the base: sepals 5, somewhat petal-like: petals 5, each one produced 

 into a long nectary spur; pistils 5: fruit a several- 

 seeded follicle. Delphinium or larkspur is an allied 

 genus. 



a. Spurs straight. 



A. Canadensis, Linn. Common wild columbine. 

 Often incorrectly called honeysuckle. Fig. 458. About 

 2 ft. : leaflets rounded or obovate, toothed at top: flowers 

 about 2 in. long, drooping, scaidet and orange or nearly 

 yellow, the stamens projecting. Common on rocks. 

 A. chrysantha, Gray. Yellow columbine. Flowers 

 458. bright yellow, erect or becoming so. New Mexico and 



Aquilegia Canadensis. Arizona, but frequent in gardens. 



aa. Spurs hooked at the end. 

 A. vulgaris, Linn. Blue columbine. A European species, common in 

 gardens, and often full double: flowers varying from blue and purple to 

 white, with rather short and thick hooked spurs. 



XII. CRUCIFErLE. Mustard Family. 



Herbs, mostly of small stature, with alternate mostly simple 

 leaves: flowers 4-merous as to envelopes, the four petals usually 

 standing 90 degrees apart and thereby forming a cross (whence 

 the name Cruciferse or " cross -bearing" ) : stamens usually 6, two 

 of them shorter: fruit a silique or siliele. A very natural or 

 well-marked family, with about 180 genera and nearly 2,000 species. 

 Familiar plants are mustard, shepherd's purse, honesty, cress, 

 pepper-grass, wallflower, stock, cabbage, turnip, radish, horse-radish. 



a. Fruit a silique (much longer than broad). 



b. Silique tipped with a long point or beak, extending 

 beyond the valves, the latter often more than 



1-nerved 1. Brassica 



bb. Silique not prominently beaked beyond the valves, each 



valve strongly 1-nerved 2. Barbarea 



