48 RANUNCULACEjE. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



Seeds smooth, flattened, and packed horizontally in 2 rows. Perennials, with 

 ample 2 - 3-ternately compound leaves, the ovate leaflets sharply cleft and 

 toothed, and a short and thick terminal raceme of white flowers. (From d/crea, 

 actcea, ancient names of the elder, transferred by Linnaeus.) 



1. A. spicata, L., var. rubra, Ait. (RED BANEBERRY.) Raceme ovate ; 

 petals rhombic-spatulate, much shorter than the stamens; pedicels slender; 

 berries cherry-red, or sometimes white, oval. Rich woods, common, especially 

 northward. April, May Plant 2 high. (Eu.) 



2. A. alba, Bigel, (WHITE BANEBERRY.) Leaflets more incised and 

 sharply toothed; racem* oblong; petals slender, mostly truncate at the end, 

 appearing to be transformed stamens; pedicels thickened in fruit, as large as 

 the peduncle and red, the globular-oval berries white. Rich woods, flowering 

 a week or two later than the other, and more common westward and south- 

 ward. White berries rarely occur with slender pedicels, also red berries 

 with thick pedicels; but these are perhaps the result of crossing. 



21. HYDRASTIS, Ellis. ORANGE-ROOT. YELLOW PUCCOON. 



Sepals 3, petal-like, falling away when the flower opens. Petals none. Pis- 

 tils 12 or more in a head, 2-ovuled ; stigma flat, 2-lipped. Ovaries becoming a 

 head of crimson 1 - 2-seeded berries in fruit. A low perennial herb, sending 

 up m early spring, from a thick and knotted yellow rootstock, a single radical 

 leaf and a simple hairy stem, which is 2-leaved near the summit and termi- 

 nated by a single greenish-white flower. (Name unmeaning.) 



1. H. Canad6nsis, L. (GOLDEN SEAL, etc.) Leaves rounded, heart- 

 shaped at the base, 5 - 7-lobed, doubly serrate, veiny, when full grown in sum- 

 mer 4-9' wide. Rich woods, N. Y. to Minn., and southward. 



22. XANTHOKRHIZA, Marshall. SHRUB YELLOW-ROOT. 



Sepals 5, regular, spreading, deciduous. Petals 5, much smaller than the 

 sepals, concave and obscurely 2-lobed, raised on a claw. Stamens 5 to 10. 

 Pistils 5-15, with 2 pendulous ovules. Pods 1 -seeded, oblong, the short style 

 becoming dorsal. A low shrubby plant ; the bark and long roots deep yellow 

 and bitter. Flowers polygamous, brown purple, in compound drooping ra- 

 cemes, appearing along with the 1 - 2-pinnate leaves from large terminal 

 buds in early spring. (Name compounded of a.vQ6s, yellow, and pifa, root.) 



1. X. apiifdlia, L'Her. Stems clustered, 1-2 high; leaflets cleft and 

 toothed. Shady banks of streams, Penn. to S W. New York and Ky., and 

 south in the mountains. The rootstocks of this, and also of the last plant, 

 were used as a yellow dye by the aborigines. 



NIGELLA DAMASC^NA, L., the FENNEL-FLOWER, which offers a remarkable 

 exception in having the pistils partly united into a compound ovary, so as to 

 form a several-celled capsule, grows nearly spontaneously around gardens. 



