RANUNCULACEJE. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 5 



1-flowered: flowers white: carpels roundish-oval. Alpine. In Colorado at 

 13,000 feet altitude, and thence through British America. 



3. THALICTRUM, L. MEADOW-RUE. 



Sepals 4 to 7, either greenish or petal-like. Pistils 4 to 15. Perennial 

 herbs with leaves 2 or 3 times ternately compound, the leaflets stalked. 

 Flowers in corymbs or panicles. The dioecious species are easily recognized 

 by combining that character with the much compounded leaves, and all of our 

 species can be distinguished from Anemone by their alternate leaves and 



inconspicuous flowers. 



* Flowers perfect. 



1. T. alpinum, L. Stem simple, 2 to 8 inches high, slightly pubescent: 

 leaves mostly radical ; leaflets roundish, about J inch long, somewhat lobed, 

 crenately toothed : /lowers nodding in a simple raceme : stigmas thick and 

 pubescent : carpels ovate, sessile. Colorado and northward throughout British 

 America. 



2. T. sparsiflorum, Turcz. Stem 1 to 3 feet high : upper leaves sessile : 

 Jlowers on long pedicels in a loose panicle : filaments clavate : carpels strongly 

 compressed, semi-obovate, short-slip itate, thrice shorter than the persistent style. 

 Subalpine. Colorado and far northward ; also in California. 



# # Flowers dioecious. 



3. T. Comuti, L. Stem 2 to 4 feet high: stem-leaves sessile (without 

 general petiole) or nearly so ; leaflets roundish or oblong and more or less 

 3-lobed, pale and usually minutely pubescent beneath, the margin mostly 

 revolute and the veining conspicuous: panicles compound: flowers white, 

 greenish, and purplish : filaments thickened upwards. Possibly includes T. 

 purpurascens, L. Colorado, and in the Atlantic States. 



4. T. Fendleri, Engelm. Rather low and slender, occasionally somewhat 

 pubescent : leaves petioled or the uppermost sessile ; leaflets usually small : 

 Jlowers in an open panicle : anthers setosely acuminate : akenes slightly glandu- 

 lar-puberulent, oblong to ovate, acuminate, 2 or 3 lines long. PI. Fendl. 5. 

 Colorado and New Mexico, and westward to Utah and Nevada. 



5. T. OCCidentale, Gray. Like the last, but stouter, the leaflets larger 

 and akenes few in a head (1 to 6), narrowly oblong (3 or 4 lines long), and 

 narrowed at each end. Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 372. From California to Wash- 

 ington Territory, and extending into Western Montana. 



4. MYOSURUS, L. MOUSETAIL. 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, linear, on a slender claw with a pit at its summit. 

 Stamens 5 to 20. Very small annual herbs, with a tuft of linear or spatulate 

 entire radical leaves, and solitary flowers on simple scapes. The long slender 

 spike of akenes and linear radical leaves give the plant the appearance of a 

 diminutive plantain. 



1. M. minimus, L. Scapes 2 to 6 inches high : leaves usually shorter : 

 akenes blunt, on slender spikes 1 or 2 inches long. From California through 

 Colorado to the Ohio Valley. 



