A GUIDE TO THE WILD FLOWERS 



broad lobes. Just below the flower are 2 stem leaves, much 

 smaller and usually fewer lobed. Flower solitary, without 

 petals, its greenish-white sepals soon falling. Much collected 

 for its valuable medicinal rootstock. April. Ontario to Vir- 

 ginia and westward. Rare. Fig. 306. See also No. 349. 

 307. Burnet. Sanguisorha cmiadcnsis. (Rosaccac.) A smooth 

 herb of swamps or meadows, with often branching stems 

 2-6 ft. high. Leaves compound, the stalked regularly toothed 

 leaflets in 3-7 opposite pairs with an odd one at the tip. 

 Flowers white, in dense terminal spikes, 1-5 in. long, without 

 petals, the color derived from the stamens. Newfoundland 

 to Georgia, west to Michigan. August. Fig. 307. See No. 359. 



308. MEADOW RUE. THALICTRUM. 



Tall graceful herbs, often in moist places, with branching 

 stems, and thrice compound leaves, the ultimate leaflets of 

 which are few toothed towards the tip, the teeth blunt or 

 rounded. Flowers in much branched clusters, without petals, 

 and the 4-5 petal-like sepals soon falling. Stamens numerous, 

 and it is these that give the flowers their greenish-white or 

 greenish-purple color. Fruit dry, with a pointed tip. (Ranun- 

 cidaccac.) See No. 349. There are eight or nine species of 

 which the following may be distinguii;hed here: 



