KANUNCULACE^ 325 



ing in earliest spring before the 2-3 ternately compound basal leaves, rising 

 from a cluster of tuberous roots: sepals 5-10, bright, quite lasting. A com- 

 mon spring flower of the woodland, appearing with the Wood Anemone or 

 Wind-flower and easily confused with it. 



4. THALtCTEUM. Meadow Rue. 



Mostly smooth perennial herbs, erect, sometimes several feet high: 

 panicled flowers small, greenish and inconspicuous, often dioecious, or 

 polygamous: foliage light, graceful, the alternate leaves being 2— t ternately 

 compound, with the leaflets and divisions stalked: calyx of 4-5 petal-like 

 greenish sepals, soon falling: stamens many: ovaries 4-15, one-seeded. 



T. didicum, Linn. Early meadoiv rue. Flowers dioecious, green or pur- 

 plish, in loose panicles: leaflets thin and delicate, 15-7-loljed, pale beneath, 

 somewhat drooping on the petiolules: anthers yellow, drooping on thread- 

 like tilaments: akenes about 8, sessile or nearly so: 1-2 ft. high. Common 

 in woodlands. April and May. 



T. polygamum, Muhl. Tall meadoiv rue. Coarser, ranker and later than 

 T. dioicuni, 4-8 ft. high: filaments of stamens broad, spatulate: akenes 

 .stalked: flowers polygamous, sepals white. 



T. purpurascens, Linn. Purplish meadow rue. Stem 2-5 ft. high usu- 

 ally purplish: stem leaves almost sessile: leaflets thick, dark green above, 

 pale and waxy or downy beneath, margins slightly rolled or thickened: 

 flowers polygamous or dioecious, greenish and purplish: anthers drooping 

 on filiform filaments. June-August. 



5. KANtNCULUS. Crowfoot. Buttercup. Figs. 2, 187, 188, 191, 242. 



Perennials or annuals, with mostly yellow flowers: sepals 5: petals 5, 

 and bearing a little pit or scale at the base inside: leaves alternate: akenes 

 many in a head. 



E. icris, Linn. Tall buttercup. Two to 3 ft., from a fibrous root: 

 leaves 3-parted, all the divisions sessile and again 3-cleft: flowers bright 

 yellow. Europe, but now a common weed. Summer. 



E. bulbbsus, Linn. Earlier, and only half as tall, from a bulbous base: 

 leaves 3-parted, the lateral divisions sessile and the terminal one stalked: 

 peduncles furrowed: flowers bright yellow. Europe; common eastward. 



R. septentrionilis, Poir. Stems more or less prostrate at base, often 

 fox-ming long runners : leaves 3-divided, divisions all stalked and 3-lobed or 

 -parted: petals obovate, yellow. Wet places. 



R. abortivus, Linn. Glabrous, biennial herb; 6 in. to 2 ft., branching: 

 basal leaves heart-shaped or kidney-form, crenate (S)metimes lobed), on 

 long stalks: later leaves, often 3-5-lobed or parted, and sessile or nearly so: 

 petals small, yellow, not equal to the sepals: styles very short, curved. 

 Shady woods and along stream-sides. April to June. 



R. micr&nthus, Nutt. Pubescent, smaller than preceding and basal 

 leaves ovate, but not heart-shaped, some 3-parted: fairly common. 



