DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



Order I. RANUNCULACE^. 



Flowers perfect, regular or irregular, rarely dioecious, mostly ter- 

 minal, solitary, racemed or panicled, white or yellow. Sepals 3- 

 many, usually 5, free, sometimes petaloid, imbricate, seldom valvate. 

 Petals equal to and alternate wdth the sepals, hj^ogynous, free, 

 clawed, imbricate, equal or unequal, varied in form, frequently minute 

 or wanting. Stamexs numerous, many-rowed, hypogynous ; filaments 

 thread-like or clavate, free ; anthers terminal, 2-celled. Carpels few 

 or many, seldom solitary ; style simple ; stigma, usually on the inner sur- 

 face of the top of the style ; fruit pointed or feathery akenes. Seeds 

 with coriaceous testa. Leaves radical, or alternate on the stem and 

 branches, seldom opposite, simple or compound, exstipulate; petiole 

 broadened or clasping. Mostly herbs, or woody climbers, occasionally 

 shrubs, with sharp, bitter, mostly poisonous juice. There are 30 genera 

 in this Order varying greatly in form, and 540 species, growing in tem- 

 perate and cold climates. 



ANEMONE, L. (Windflower.) Sepals, 5 or many, petal-like. Petals 

 wanting or rudimentary. Stamens numerous, short. Fruit in roundish 

 or subcylindrical head. Akenes mucronate. Involucre open and below 

 the flowers, which are terminal. Herbs, perennial, with radical leaves. 



1. A. cylindrica, Gray. (Long-fruited Anemone.) Stem 1 to 2 feet high, 

 silky, pubescent. Leaves 2-3 inches Avide, 3-parted, parts wedge-shaped, 

 deeply lobed, and toothed. Side lobes 2-parted, middle one 3-parted, lobes 

 toothed and gashed at the apex ; petioles 3 to 6 inches long ; involucre long- 

 petioled. Flowers on long, naked, 2-flowered peduncles, 3-6 in number, 

 occasionally 1- or more-involucred. Sepals 5, silky, greenish white, blunt. 

 Fruit iu cylindrical heads an incli or more long. May. 



Geography. — Dry copses. Mass. to New Jersey, and Avest to Colorado. 



2. A. decapetala, L. (A. Caroliniana, AYalt. ) (Carolina Anemone.) Stem 

 3 to 10 inches high, puliescent above ; tuber round, sending up several leaves 

 and one stem or scape. Leaves long-stalked, 3-parted, mucli divided into 

 wedge-shaped linear divisions. Involucre below middle of scape, 2- or 3-leaved, 

 each 3-parted, segments 3-cleft. Flowers showy, sepals 10-20, nearly linear, 

 outer ones dotted with purple. Fruit in oblong cylindrical head. April, May. 



Geography. — Carolina to Arkansas and Nebraska. 



3. A. dichotoma, L. (A. Pennsylvanica, L.) (Pennsylvanian Anemone.) Stem 

 12 to 20 inches high, frequently less than 12, — dichotomous and hairy. Leaves 

 of the root 3-7-parted, segments cuneate, 3-lobed and acuminate, or pointed, 

 parts large and veiny ; those of the main involucre 3-parted, acuminate-lobed 

 and toothed, those of involucres, sessile. First f.ower appears on a naked 

 peduncle from the base oi which rise two branches, each with a 2-leaved 



30 



