172 KEY AND FLORA 



length, rigid, covered with abloom, parallel-veined, fringed with white 

 bristles. Bracts shorter than the heads, entire ; bractlets similar 

 but smaller. Flowers white. Fruit scaly. In damp soil.* 



II. SANICULA L. 



Slender, erect, perennial herbs. Rootstock short, stout, 

 creeping. Leaves palmately cut. Umbels small, somewhat 

 globular, irregularly compound ; bracts leafy ; bractlets few ; 

 flowers bisexual or staminate, greenish or yellowish. Calyx 

 teeth as long as the small petals, sharp-pointed. Fruit ovoid, 

 covered with hooked prickles, ribless, each carpel with 5 oil 

 tubes. 



1. S. marilandica L. Sanicle, Black Snakekoot. Perenniah 

 Stem rather stout, 1-4 ft. high. Leaves 3-7-parted, the divisions 

 irregularly serrate or dentate and often cut. Flowers bisexual and 

 staminate, the latter in separate heads. Petals greenish-white, very 

 small. Styles slender, recurved, and longer than the prickles of the 

 fruit. Rich woods. 



2. S. gregaria Bicknell. Clustered Snakeroot. Stems gener- 

 ally clustered, 1-3 ft. high. Leaves 5-divided, obovate-wedge-shaped 

 to lanceolate. Some of the staminate flowers in separate heads. 

 Petals yellow, much longer than the calyx. Styles longer than the 

 prickles of the fruit. Woods and thickets. 



3. S. canadensis L. Short-Styled Snakeroot. Leaves peti- 

 oled, 3-5-divided. Staminate flowers never in separate heads. Styles 

 shorter than the prickles of the fruit. In woodlands. 



III. ERIGENIA Nutt. 



A little smooth plant, with a slender, unbranched stem, from 

 a deep, nearly globular tuber. Leaves 1 or 2, twice or thrice 

 compound in threes. Flowers few, small, in an imperfect 

 leafy-bracted umbel. Calyx teeth wanting. Petals obovate or 

 spatulate. Fruit smooth, roundish, notched at both ends, the 

 two carpels touching only at top and bottom, each with 5 

 slender ribs. 



1. E. bulbosa Nutt. Harbinger of Spring, Turkey Pea, Pep- 



per-and-Salt. Stem scape-like, with a leaf which forms an invo- 

 lucre to the flower cluster. Petals white, anthers brown-purple. A 

 pretty, though inconspicuous plant ; welcomed as one of the earliest 

 spring flowers S. 



