408 MAGNOLIACEAE (MAGNOLIA FAMILY) 



minal raceme of white flowers. (From d/cr^a, actaea, ancient names of the Elder, 

 transferred by Linnaeus.) 



1. A. rubra (Ait.) Willd. (Red B.) Bacenie ovoid ; petals rhomhicHspatu- 

 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 iijhite. — n\ch 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 earlv spring, from a thick and knotted yellow rootstock, a single radical 

 leaf and a sim"ple 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-pmnate 

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

 yellow, and pl^a, root.) Xanthorrhiza Marsh., a better but later form. 



1. Z. apiifblia 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, loith 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. magn6lia l. 



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

 \ong 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. Magrwl, professor of botany at Montpellier in the 17th century.) 



