CROWFOOT FAMILY. Ranunculacex. 



A tiny woodland plant whose bitter 

 Qoldthread golden yellow threadlike roots contribute 

 J^t-'J" ' ' to the medicinal stock of the old-fashioned 

 May-July country housewife. The ev^ergreen leaves 



are lustrous dark green, three-lobed, scal- 

 loped, finely toothed, and long-stemmed. The solitary 

 flower terminating a long slender stem has 5-7 white 

 sepals, and has many obscure little club-shaped petals, 

 15-25 white stamens with golden anthers, and 3-7 pistils 

 on slender stalks. The strange petals terminating the 

 minute cuplike discs are really nectaries intended to 

 minister to thirsty insects. According to C. M. Weed 

 the flower is cross-fertilized mostly by a fungus gnat — 

 a little two- winged fly, and occasionally by a small 

 elongated beetle called Anaspis flavipennis. 3-6 inches 

 high. In bogs of woodlands or shady pastures, from 

 Me., south to Md., and west to Minn. The name from 

 the Greek to cut, in reference to the cut-leaf. 

 Columbine ^ most delicate but hardy plant com- 



Aquilegia mon on rocky hillsides and the borders of 



Canadensis wooded glens. The long-stemmed com- 

 Scarlet. yellow pQ^^^d leaves are light olive green, with 

 Julv ^^^ ^ three-lobed leaflets. The flowers are 



graded from yellow through scarlet to red 

 at the tip of the spurs. The petals are the 5 tubes cul- 

 minating in the spurs, and the 5 sepals are the spreading 

 ruddy yellow leaflets grading into a greenish yellow, 

 situated between the tubes. Stamens yellow. Fertilized 

 by moths and butterflies. 1-2 feet high. Common 

 everywhere. Rarely the flowers are altogether golden 

 yellow. The long spurs indicate the adaptation of the 

 flower to long-tongued insects. 



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