RANUNCULACE^:. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 35 



Tribe III. HELLEBORES. Sepals imbricated in the bud, rarely persistent, petal- 

 like. Petals often nectariferous or reduced to staminodia or none. Pods (follicles) or 

 berries (in n. 20, 21) few, rarely single, few - many-seeded. Leaves alternate. 



* Ovules and commonly seeds more than one pair. Herbs. 



- Flowers regular, not racemose. Petals inconspicuous nectaries or slender or none. Sepals 

 tardily deciduous. 



10. Isopyrum. Petals none. Sepals broad, white. Pods few. Leaves compound. 



11. Caltha. Petals none. Sepals broad, yellow. Leaves kidney-shaped, undivided. 



12. Trollius. Petals 5-20, narrow, pitted above the base. Pods sessile. Leaves pal- 



mately lobed. 



13. Coptis. Petals 5-6, small, hollowed at apex, white. Pods long-stalked. Leaves 



radical, trifoliolate. 



14. Helleborus. Petals small, tubular, 2-lipped. Sepals 5, broad, persistent and turning 



green. Pods sessile. 



15. Eraiitliis. Petals small 2-lipped nectaries. Sepals 5-8, narrow, deciduous. Flower 



solitary, involucrate. 



- - Sepals and large spur-shaped petals regular, each 5. 



16. Aquilegiao Pistils 5, with slender styles. Leaves ternately compound. 



H- (- t- Flowers unsymmetrical and irregular. Sepals 5. 



17. Delphinium. Uppei sepal spurred. Petals 4, of two forms ; the upper pair with 



long spurs, enclosed in the spur of the calyx. 



18. Aconitum. Upper sepal hooded, covering the two long-clawed small petals. 



4- -t- +- 4- Flowers regular, racemose. Sepals caducous. Petals very small, stamen-like, or 

 none. Leaves decompound. 



19. Cimicifuga. Flowers in long often paniculate racemes. Pistils 1-8, becoming 



many -seeded pods. 



20. Actsea. Flowers in a single short raceme. Pistil single, forming a many-seeded 



berry. 



* * Ovules a single pair. Flowers regular. Roots yellow and bitter. 



21. Hydrastis. Flowers solitary. Sepals 3, petal-like, caducous. Petals none. Sta- 



mens numerous. Pistils several, becoming 2-seeded berries. Leaves simple, lobed. 



22. Xaiithorrhiza. Flowers in compound racemes. Sepals 5. Petals 5, small, 2-lobed, 



with claws. Stamens 5 - 10. Pods 1-seeded. Shrub with pinnate leaves. 



1. CLEMATIS, L. VIRGINS-BOWER. 



Sepals 4, or rarely more, colored, the valvate margins turned inward in the 

 bud. Petals none or small. Achenes numerous in a head, bearing the per- 

 sistent styles as naked, hairy, or plumose tails. Perennial herbs or vines, 

 mostly a little woody, and climbing by the bending or clasping of the leaf- 

 stalks, rarely low and erect. Leaves opposite. (KA^an's, a name of Diosco- 

 rides for a climbing plant with long and lithe branches.) 



I. FL-AMMULA. Flowers cymose-paniculate, rather small, in our species 

 dioecious. Sepals petaloid, whitish, spreading, thin. Petals none. Anthers 

 short, blunt. 



1. C. Virgini&na, L. (COMMON VIRGIN'S-BOWER.) Smooth; leaves 

 bearing 3 ovate acute leaflets, which are cut or lobed, and somewhat heart- 

 shaped at the base ; tails of the fruit plumose. River-banks, etc., common , 

 climbing over shrubs. July, August. 



2. C. ligusticifblia, Nutt. Very similar, but the leaves 5-foliolate or 

 quinate-ternate. Long Pine, Neb., and west to the Pacific. 



