RANUNCULACEAE QCROWFOOT FAMILY) 407 



Seed-coat usually wrinkled or scaly. —Perennials, with palmately cleft or dib 

 sected leaves, and showy flowers in racemes or panicles. (The ancient Greek 

 and Latin name, of uncertain origin.) 



1. A. noveborac6nse Gray. Erect from tuberous-thickened roots, hiph, leafy, 

 the ttummit and strict loosely flowered raceme pubescent; leaves rather deeply 

 parted, the broadly cuneate divisions 8-cleft and incised ; flowers blue ; the hel- 

 met gibbous-obovoid with broad rounded summit and short descendiiif; beak. 



Chenango, Orange, and Ulster Cos., N. Y. ; also Summit Co., 0. ; and reported 

 from Allamakee Co., la. (Pammel). 



2. A. uncinsttum L. (Wild M.) Glabrous; stem slender, from tuhrroits- 

 thickened roots, erect, but weak and disposed to climb ; leaves firm, deiply ;d-5. 

 lobed, petioled, the lobes ovate-lanceolate, coarsely toothed ; floicers blue ; hel- 

 met erect, obtusely conical, compressed, slightly beaked in front. — Hich shady 

 soil along streams. Pa., and southw. in the mts. ; Wise. June-Aug. 



3. A. reclinatum Gray. (Trailing W.) Glabrous ; stems trailing, 1-3 m. 

 long; leaves deeply S-7-cleft, petioled, the lower orbicular in outline, 12-15 

 cm. wide ; the divisions wedge-form, incised, often 2-3-lobed ; flowers white, 

 1.8 cm. long, nearly glabrous, in very loose panicles ; helmet soon horizontal, 

 elongated-conical, with ^straight beak in front. — Cheat Mt., Va., and southw. 

 in the Alleghenies. Aug. 



20. CIMICIFUGA L. Bugbanb 



Sepals 4 or 5, falling off soon after the flower expands. Petals, or rather 

 transformed stamens, 1-8, small, on claws, 2-horned at the apex. Stamens as in 

 Actaea. Pistils 1-8, forming dry dehiscent pods in fruit. — Perennials, with 

 2-3-ternately divided leaves, the leaflets cut-serrate, and white flowers in elon- 

 gated wand-like racemes. (Name from cimex, a bug, send fugei-e, to drive away. ) 



§ 1. ACTINOSPORA (Turcz.) B. & H. Pistils S-S, stipitate ; seeds flattened 

 laterally, covered with chaffy scales, in one row in the membranaceous 

 pods; style awl-shaped; stigma minute. 



1. C. americana Michx. (American B.) Stem 6-12 dm. high ; racemes 

 slender, panicled ; ovaries mostly 5, glabrous ; pods flattened, veiny, 6-8-seeded. 

 — Watkins, N. Y. (according to Britton) ; mountains of s. Pa., and southw. 

 Aug. -Sept. 



§ 2. MACR6tRYS (Raf.) T. & G. (as Macrotys). Pistil solitary or sometimes 

 2-3, sessile; seeds smooth, flattened and packed horizontally in the pod in 

 two rows, as in Actaea ; stigma broad and flat. 



2. C. racembsa (L.) Nutt. (Black Snakeroot, Black Cohosh.) Stem 

 1-2.6 m. high, from a thick knotted rootstock ; leaves 2-3-ternately and then 

 often quinately compound ; leaflets subcuneate to subcordate at the base ; racemes 

 in fruit becoming 3-9 dm. long; pods ovoid. — Rich woods, s. N. E. to Wise, 

 and southw. ; cultivated and escaped eastw. July. Var. dissecta Gray. 

 Leaves irregularly pinnately decompound, the rather small leaflets incised. — 

 Local, s. w. Ct. (Fames) to Del. {Commons). 



Var. cordif51ia (Pursh) Gray. Leaflets few (about 9), very large (1-2.5 dm. 

 long), at least the terminal one deeply cordate. (C. cordifoUa Pursh.) — Damp 

 woods, mts. of s. w. Va. to N. C. and Tenn. — Said to flower later than the 

 typical form 



21. ACTAEA L. Baneberrt Cohosh 



Sepalis 4 or 5, falling off when the flower expands. Petals 4-10, small, flat, 

 spatulate, on slender claws. Stamens numerous, with slender white filaments. 

 Pistil single ; stigma sessile, depressed, 2-lobed. Seeds smooth, flattened, and 

 packed horizontally in 2 rows. —Perennials, with ample 2-3-ternately compound 

 leaves, the ovate leaflets sharply cleft and toothed, and a short and thick ter- 



