24 SPRING FLORA 



1. THALICTRTJM. Meadow-Rue. 



Perennials, 1-4 ft. high. Petioles dilated at base. Flowers 

 panicled or corymbed; perfect or dioecious. Sepals 4-7, regu- 

 lar, greenish-white, petal-like. Carpels 4-15, ripening into 

 achenes. 



1. T. Pendleri Engelm. Granular or glandular-pubescent. 

 Leaves triternate, petioled or the uppermost sessile; the leaflets 

 petioled, small, roundish, 3-lobed. Flowers dioecious, panicled. 

 Achenes large, with 8-10 prominent ribs. May-June. Along 

 mountain streams in light shade. This plant is sometimes 

 mistaken for Maidenhair fern. 



2. ACTAEA. Baneberry. 



Tall erect branched herbs, often unpleasantly sfcented; 

 perennial from a short and branched rootstalk. Leaves 2-3 

 times ternately compound. Flowers small, racemose, white, 

 numerous, regular. Sepals 3-6; petal-like; petals narrow; 

 clawed; smaller than sepals. Stamens numerous. Stigma ses- 

 sile, 2-lobed. Carpel 1; ovary many-ovuled, ripening into a 

 poisonous berry. 



1. A. arguta Nutt. (A. spicata arguta Torr. Includes A. 

 eburnea Rydb.) Bushy-branched, 7-15 inches high; glabrous 

 or nearly so. Basal leaf long-petioled; the divisions pinnate, 

 also long-petioled. Leaflets thin, prominently veined; ovate, 

 sharply incised and with acute or acuminate teeth. Raceme 

 ovoid, elongating in fruit. Petals spatulate. Berries scarlet 

 or white; oval or nearly round. In rich soil near mountain 

 streams or springs. May-June. 



3. AQ,UILEGIA. Columbine. 



Perennials with large 2-3 ternately-compound leaves. Sepals 

 5, regular, petal-like. Petals 5, regular, each one usually pro- 

 longed backward between the sepals into a hollow spur. 

 Stamens many; the inner row being a white membranous tube 

 of staminodia. Carpels 5. Follicles many-seeded. 



1. A. flavescens Watson. Yellow Columbine. Stem 2-5 ft. 

 high. Peduncles and carpels pubescent, the rest of plant gla- 

 brous. Flowers nodding but becoming erect in fruit. Sepals 

 pale-yellow, often tinged with red. Petals pale-yellow; their 

 spurs more or less curved but scarcely hooked, knobbed at 

 end. about as long as petals but shorter than the sepals. 

 Stamens long-exserted. Along mountain streams, from 

 6,000-9,000 ft. May-July. 



4. DELPHINIUM. Larkspur. 



Perennials with palmately-lobed, cleft or divided leaves and 

 blue flowers in simple racemes. Sepals 5; irregular, the upper 

 one being prolonged into a slender spur, colored like the 

 corolla. Petals 4; irregular, the upper 2 fitting into the calyx- 

 spur. Stamens numerous. Carpels 3, ripening into many-seeded 

 follicles. 



Stem (at least above) usually viscid 1. D. bicolor 



Stem not viscid ,,.,,., 2. D. Nelsonli 



