CROWFOOT FAMILY. Ranunculacese. 



A tall spreading, slender-stemmed wood- 

 Snakeroot land plant, with fuzzy, feathery white 

 Cimicifuga flowers borne in a 6-20 inches long, wand- 

 racemosa like cluster, having a disagreeable foetid 



odor, and compound, sharply toothed, 

 light green leaves. The 4-8 petals are 

 stamenlike, and the stamens are numerous. The flower 

 is assisted in fertilization by the green flesh-flies. Fruit 

 berrylike and purplish. 3-8 feet high. Woods, Me., 

 south to Ga. , and west to Minn, and Mo. 

 R A bushy woodland plant with compound 



Baneberry ^~^ parted leaves, the leaflets toothed and 

 Actaa rubra lobed, the lower end-leaflets sometimes 

 White again compound. The tiny white, perfect 



pnl-June flowers with 4-10 exceedingly narrow pet- 

 als and numerous stamens ; the 4-5 sepals petallike and 

 falling when the flower blooms. Cross-fertilized by the 

 small bees, especially of the species Halictus. The stig- 

 mas mature before the anthers are open, thus securing 

 cross-fertilization. Fruit a thick cluster of coral red, 

 oval berries (poisonous); slender stems. 1-2 feet high. 

 Woods, from Me., southwest to N. J. and Pa., and west. 

 A similar species with the same distribu- 

 Baneberry tion. The leaflets are more deeply cut, 

 Actceaalba the teeth are sharper, and the lobes are 

 Wh te acute. The narrow, stamenlike petals are 



Late April- blunt at the tip, and shorter than the sta- 

 mens. Fruit a china white berry with 

 a conspicuous purple-black eye ; the stems are thick and 

 fleshy, and usually red. Forms with slender-stemmed 

 white berries, and fleshy-stemmed red berries occasion- 

 ally occur, but these are considered hybrids [see note 

 in the Appendix]. The Actceas are not honey flow- 

 ers and the smaller bees (Halictus) visit them for pollen. 



A stocky yellow-rooted perennial, send- 

 Orangeroot 



Hydrastis ln S U P m spring a single clear green, 



Canadensis round, veiny root-leaf, lobed and toothed, 



Greenish an d a hairy stem terminated by two small 



leaves, from the uppermost one of which 



springs an insignificant green- white 



flower scarcely inch broad, with numerous stamens, 



150 



