IIANUNCULACE.E. 69 



Their subterranean stems are rhizomes analogous to those oi" the 

 Hellebores. The aerial branches bear alternate leaves like those of 

 Thalictnnn, slightly sheathing at the base, and either pluripin- 

 nate,^ simply digitate, or even hardly at all lobed in certain 

 Japanese species such as A. acerina- The inflorescence is termi- 

 nal, consisting of more or less elongated simple or compound 

 racemes ; this last character varying in the same species, and even 

 on the same stem. The flowers are nearly always solitary in the 

 axils of the alternate bracts, but may be here and there accompanied 

 by a lateral bud. Towards the summit of the inflorescence the number 

 of stamens may be greatly diminished, and the gynaeceum abort, as 

 in the preceding genera; so that some plants oi Acfaa are poly- 

 gamous. 



Thus constituted,' the genus Actcea, whose relations with Ranun- 

 culus through Trautvefteria, and with the Columbines through 

 Xanthorhiza are recognised by every one, has also been placed near the 

 Pseonies by several authors, on account of its multiovulate ovaries, 

 and the form of its leaves. 



IV. P^ONY SEEIES. 



While all the RanmicuJacece we have as yet studied have convex 

 receptacles to their flowers, so that the leaves of the perianth and the 

 stamens have a hypogynous insertion, in the Paeonies' the floral re- 

 ceptacle becomes slightly concave, so as to forma kind of cup, 

 the base of which supports the carpels, the calyx, corolla, and 

 stamens are inserted perigynously on its sides. The flowers are 

 hermaphrodite and regular. If we examine one of P. alhijtora Pall. 

 (fig. 110), w^e see that the peduncle, dilated above into a faii'ly deep 

 receptacular cup, bears on its rim a calyx often' formed of five free 



' As much as four or five times divided in ^. . , / or several dry carpels. Seeds 



racemosa, spicata, &c. 'I bristly, 



- PUi/rosperma SlEB. & Zccc. {Act. Math. . ' -.4. Cimicifuga L. Actinospora S. it 



Phys. Monac, iii. 743, t. 3). Here they are some- (contd 1 Ztrcc). Several dry carpels, 



times even simple. In other respects these plants '• '^ \ Seeds bristly. 



are inseparable from Alacrotys, of which they •• PtBonia T., Inst., 273, t. 145. L. Gen. ii. 



possess the perianth, the gynseceum, and usually 678. — Jrss., Gen., 234. — DC, Prodr., i. 65.— 



the unicarpellary ovary. But some flowers of Spach, Suit, a Buff., vii. 394. — Endl., Gen., n. 



Pityrosperma have certainly several carpels. 4804. — B. H., Gen., 10, n. 30. — H, Bn., Adan- 



3 /I. Christophoriana T. One fleshy sonia, \\\. -ib ; iv. 56. 



Act^a carpel. Seeds smooth. * It is in theory alone that we admit that there 



g^^_ ■ -j 2. Botrophis Rafix. One dry carpel. are only five sepals, and consider as bracts the 



tions 4 Seeds smooth. outer appendages, which resemble the foliage- 



■ \.3. Pityrosperma SlEB. «Sc Zucc. One leaves more or less. (See Adatisonia, iv. 3.) 



