408 MAGNOLIACEAE (MAGNOLIA FAMILY) 



rninal raceme of white flowers. (From djcrta, actaea, ancient names of the Elder, 

 transferred by Linnaeus.) 



1. A. rubra (Ait.) Willd. (RED B.) Eaceme ovoid; petals rhombic-spatu- 

 late, much shorter than the stamens ; pedicels slender ; berries cherry-red, 

 poisonous, ovoid-ellipsoid. (A. spicata, var. Ait.) Rich woods, common, 

 especially northw. Apr., May. A form with decompound leaves and incised 

 leaflets is var. DISSECTA Britton. Lincoln Co., Ont. Forma NEGLECTA 

 (Gillman) Robinson has white berries on long slender green pedicels. (A. 

 neglecta Gillman; A. eburnea Rydb.) Not rare. Worthy of further study 

 and perhaps distinct. 



2. A. alba (L.) Mill. (WHITE B.) Leaflets more incised and sharply 

 toothed ; raceme ellipsoid; petals slender, mostly truncate at the end, appearing 

 to be transformed stamens ; pedicels thickened in fruit, as large as the peduncle 

 and red, the globular-ovoid berries white. Rich woods, flowering a week or two 

 later than the other, and more common westward and southward. 



22. HYDRASTIS Ellis. ORANGE-ROOT. YELLOW PUCCOON 



Pistils 12 or more in a head, 2-ovuled-; stigma flat, 2-lipped. Ovaries becom- 

 ing a head of crimson 1-2-seeded berries in fruit. A low perennial herb, send- 

 ing up in early spring, from a thick and knotted yellow rootstock, a single radical 

 leaf and a simple hairy stem, which is 2-leaved near the summit and terminated 

 by a single greenish white flower. (Name unmeaning.) 



1. H. canadensis L. (GOLDEN SEAL.) Leaves rounded, heart-shaped at 

 the base, 5-7-lobed, doubly serrate, veiny, when full grown in summer 1-2 dm. 

 wide. Rich woods, w. N. E. to Minn., and southw. Apr., May. 



23. ZANTHORHiZA L'H(r. SHRUB YELLOW-ROOT 



Sepals 5, regular, spreading, deciduous. Pistils 5-15, with 2 pendulous ovules. 

 Pods 1-seeded, oblong, the short style becoming dorsal. A low shrubby plant ; 

 the bark and long roots deep yellow and bitter. Flowers polygamous, brown- 

 purple, in compound drooping racemes, appearing along with the 1-2-pinnate 

 leaves from large terminal buds in early spring. (Name compounded of ave6s, 

 yellow, and ptfa, root.} XANTHORRHIZA Marsh., a better but later form. 



1. Z. apiifdlia L'Her. Stems clustered, 3-6 dm. high ; leaflets cleft and 

 toothed. Shady banks of streams, Pa. and s. w. N. Y. to Ky. and Ga. 



MAGNOLlACEAE (MAGNOLIA FAMILY) 



Trees or shrubs, with the leaf-buds covered by membranous stipules, polypeta- 

 lous, hypogynous, polyandrous, polygynous ; the calyx and corolla colored alike, 

 in three or more rows of three, and imbricated (rarely covolute} in the bud. 

 Sepals and petals deciduous. Anthers adnate. Pistils many, mostly packed 

 together and covering the prolonged receptacle, cohering with each other, and 

 in fruit forming a sort of fleshy or dry cone. Seeds 1 or 2 in each carpel, 

 anatropous ; albumen fleshy; embryo minute. Leaves alternate, not toothed, 

 marked with minute transparent dots, feather-veined. Flowers single, large. 

 Bark aromatic and bitter. 



1. MAGNdLIA L. 



Sepals 3. Petals 6-9. Stamens imbricated, with very short filaments, and 

 long anthers opening inward. Pistils coherent, forming a fleshy and rather 

 woody cone-like red fruit ; each carpel at maturity opening on the back, from 

 which the 1 or 2 berry-like seeds hang by an extensile thread. (Named for 

 P. Magnol, professor of botany at Montpellier in the 17th century.) 



