56 RANUNCULACEAE. [Voi,. II. 



2. Actaea alba (L.) Mill. White 

 Baneberry. (Fig. 1555.) 



Actaea spicata var. alba L. Sp. PI. 504. 1753. 

 Actaea alba Mill. Gard. Diet. Ed. 8, no. 2. 1768. 



Closely resembles the preceding species in 

 habit and aspect. Leaflets generally more cut 

 and the teeth and lobes acute or acuminate; ra- 

 ceme oblong; petals truncate at the apex; fruit- 

 ing pedicels as thick as the peduncle and often 

 red; berries short -oval, white, often purplish at 

 the end. 



In woods, Nova Scotia and Anticosti to Georgia, 

 west to British Columbia and Missouri. Ascends to- 

 5000 ft. in Virginia. April-June. Forms with white 

 berries and slender pedicels and red berries on 

 thickened pedicels are occasionally met with, and 

 supposed by Watson and Coulter (Gray's Man. Ed. 

 6, 48) to be the result of hybridization. The whitr- 

 berried species is said to bloom a week or two later 

 than the ml. 



10. CIMICIFUGA L. Amoen. Acad. 8: 193. 1774. 



Tall erect perennial herbs, with large decompound leaves, and white racemose flowers. 

 Sepals 2-5, petaloid, deciduous. Petals 1-8, small, clawed, 2-lobcd or none. Carpels 1-8, 

 many-ovuled, sessile or stipitate, forming follicles at maturity. Stigma broad or minute. 

 [Latin, to drive away bugs.] 



A genus of about 10 species, natives of North America, Asia and eastern Europe. Besides the 

 following, there are 3 on the western side of the continent. 



Carpels i or 2, sessile; seeds in 2 rows, smooth. 



Leaflets ovate, oblong or obovate, narrowed, truncate or subcordate at the base. i. C. racemosa. 



leaflets broadly ovate or suborbicular, deeply cordate. 2. C. cordifolia. 



Carpels 2-3, stalked; seeds in i row, chaffy. 3- C. Americana, 



i. Cimicifuga racemdsa (L. ) Nutt. Black Snakeroot. 



(Fig. 1556.) 



Actaea racemosa L. Sp. PI. 504. 1753. 

 Cimicifuga racemosa Nutt. Gen. 3: 15. 1818. 



Stem slender, 3- 8 high, leafy above. 

 Leaves ternate, the divisions pinnate and 

 the ultimate leaflets often again compound; 

 leaflets ovate or oblong, or the terminal one 

 obovate, acute or sometimes obtusish at the 

 apex, narrowed, truncate or the lower sub- 

 cordate at base, incisely-toothed, cleft or di- 

 vided, thickish, nearly glabrous; racemes 

 compound, terminal, 6'-2 long, usually 

 finely pubescent; pedicels bracted; flowers 

 6"-7" broad, foetid; petals 4-8, 2-cleft; sta- 

 mens very numerous; pistils i or 2, sessile; 

 stigma broad; follicles oval, 3 // -4 // long, 

 minutely beaked; seeds in 2 rows, smooth, 

 flattened. 



In woods, Maine and Ontario to Wisconsin, 

 south to Georgia and Missouri. Ascends to 4000 

 ft. in North Carolina. June-Aug. 



Cimicifuga racemosa dissecta A. Gray, Man. Ed. 6, 47. 1890. 

 Leaves pinnately compound, the leaflets all incised. Southern Pennsylvania and Delaware. 



