38 RANUNCULACE^E. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



toothed; radical leaves 5-7-parted or cleft; sepals 5, obovate, white (6" -9" 

 long) ; head of fruit spherical; the carpels flat, orbicular. W. New England 

 to Illinois and northwestward. June - Aug. 



8. A. nemordsa, L. (WIND-FLOWER. WOOD A.) Low, smoothish; 

 stem perfectly simple, from a filiform rootstock, slender, leafless, except the in- 

 volucre of 3 long-petioled trifoliolate leaves, their leaflets wedge-shaped or oblong, 

 and toothed or cut, or the lateral ones (var. QUINQUEFOLIA) 2-parted ; a simi- 

 lar radical leaf in sterile plants solitary from the rootstock ; peduncle not longer 

 than the involucre : sepals 4-7, oval, white, sometimes tinged with purple out- 

 side; carpels only 15-20, oblong, with a hooked beak. Margin of woods. 

 April, May. A delicate vernal species ; the flower 1' broad. (Eu.) 



3. HEPATICA, Dm. LIVER-LEAF. HEPATICA. 



Involucre simple and 3-leaved, very close to the flower, so as to resemble a 

 calyx; otherwise as in Anemone (of which this genus should strictly be viewed 

 as only a section). Leaves all radical, heart-shaped and 3-lobed, thickish and 

 persistent through the winter, the new ones appearing later than the flowers, 

 which are single, on hairy scapes. (Name from a fancied resemblance to the 

 liver in the shape of the leaves.) 



1. H. triloba, Chaix. (ROUND-LOBED HEPATICA.) Leaves with 3 ovate 

 obtuse or rounded lobes ; those of the involucre also obtuse. Woods ; common 

 eastward ; flowering soon after the snow leaves the ground in spring. Sepals 

 6-9, blue, purplish, or nearly white. Achenia several, in a small loose head, 

 ovate-oblong, pointed, hairy. (Eu.) 



2. H. acutiloba, DC. (SHARP-LOBED HEPATICA.) Leaves with 3 ovate 

 and pointed lobes, or sometimes 5-lobed ; those of the involucre acute or acut- 

 ish. Woods, Vermont and New York to Wisconsin. Sepals 7-12, pale pur- 

 ple, pink, or nearly white. Perhaps runs into the other. 



4. THALiCTRUM, Tourn. MEADOW-RUE. 



Sepals 4 or more, petal-like or greenish. Petals none. Achenia 4-15, 

 grooved or ribbed, or else inflated. Seed suspended. Perennials, with 2-3- 

 jternately compound leaves, the divisions and the leaflets stalked. Flowers in 

 corymbs or panicles, often polygamous or dio3cious. (Derivation obscure.) 



1. SYNDESMON, Hoffm. Between Thalictrum and Anemone, having all 

 its stem-leaves in the form of an involucre at the top, and the stamens shorter than 

 the 5-10 white and conspicuous sepals; but the stigma depressed-truncate, and 

 the ovoid sessile carpels terete, many-angled, with deep intermediate grooves : flow- 

 ers perfect. 



1. T. anemonoides, Michx. (RuE- ANEMONE.) Glabrous; stem and 

 slender petiole of radical leaf (a span high) rising from a cluster of thickened 

 tuberous roots ; the latter 2 - 3-ternately compound ; leaflets roundish, somewhat 

 3-lobed at the end, cordate at the base, long-petiolulate, those of the 2 - 3-leaved 

 1 - 2-ternate involucre similar ; flowers several in an umbel ; sepals oval (' long, 

 rarely pinkish) not early deciduous. Woods, common, flowering in early 



