BUTTERCUP FAMILY. Ranunculaceae. 





These beautiful mountain flowers bloom 

 Western in early spring, sometimes poking their 



Anemone pre tty faces right through a hole melted in 



Anemone ' , ., ...^ ,, . 



occidentilis a snow-bank, and the brave little things 



White are quite thickly covered with silky wool 



Spring a ii over, as if to keep themselves warm. 



The flowers, which often bloom before the 

 leaves expand, are about two inches across, with five to 

 eight, cream-white sepals, tinged with blue and hairy on 

 the outside, and are much less delicate looking than most 

 Anemones. The stout stems are very woolly, from six to 

 eighteen inches tall, and the leaves are beautiful, cut into 

 numerous, very fine divisions, exceedingly feathery and 

 pretty. The akenes have long, feathery tails and fonr 

 very large, silky, fluffy heads, which are very handsom( 

 and conspicuous. 



There are a good many kinds of Caltha, succulen 

 marsh plants, of temperate and arctic regions; the leave! 

 undivided, mostly from the base and more or less heart 

 shaped; the flowers with large, petal-like sepals and no 

 petals. This is the Latin name of the Marigold. 



A pretty little mountain, marsh plant 

 White Marsh . , ' , 



Marigold Wlt ^ a smo th, stout, purplish stem from 



Cdltha leptosepala four to eight inches tall, and smooth, light- 

 White green leaves, often veined with purple on 

 Summer the under gide> The flowers are an inch 

 Northwest 



and a quarter across, with eight or ten, 



cream-white sepals, tinged with blue on the outside, andl 

 pretty golden centers of numerous stamens. This blooms! 

 at the edge of the retreating snow and reaches an altitude | 

 of twelve thousand feet. C. palustris, the Yellow Marshfl 

 Marigold, found in the Northwest and common in the i 

 East, has beautiful yellow flowers, resembling large Butter- 3 

 cups. 



146 



