CLASS XIII. ORDER I. 229 



After the flower has fallen, the leaves, continue to grow, and 

 by midsummer have acquired so large a size as to appear like a 

 different plant. — Woods and thickets, South Boston and Cam- 

 bridge. — April. Perennial. 



The root is a violent emetic. 



235. PODOPHYLLUM. 

 Podophyllum peltatum. May Apple. 



American Medical Botany, PI. xxiii. 



Leaves two, peltate, lobed. 



The May Apple has a jointed running root about half the size 

 of the finger, by which it spreads extensively in rich grounds, 

 where it gets introduced. The stem is about a foot in height, 

 and invested at its base by the sheaths which covered it when 

 in bud. It is smooth, round, and erect, dividing at top into two 

 round petioles from three to six inches long. Each petiole sup- 

 ports a large peltate, palmate leaf, smooth above, slightly pubes- 

 cent beneath, deeply divided into about seven lobes, which are 

 wedge-shaped, two parted and toothed at the extremity. On 

 the inside the leaf is cleft almost to the petiole. In barren stems 

 which support but one leaf this does not take place, and the leaf 

 is very perfectly peltate. In the fork of the stem is a solitary 

 flower on a round, nodding peduncle one or two inches long. 

 Calyx of three oval, obtuse, concave leaves, cohering in the bud 

 by their scarious margins, and breaking off at base when the 

 flower expands. Petals from six to nine. Linnaeus makes them 

 nine in his generic character, but in this climate I have found 

 them more frequently seven even in luxuriant specimens grow- 

 ing in very rich soil. They are obovate, obtuse, concave, 

 smooth, white, with slight transparent veins. Stamens shorter 

 thaa the petals, curving upwards ; anthers oblong, twice as long 

 as their filaments. Germ oval, compressed, obscurely angular. 

 Stigma nearly sessile, convex, its surface rendered irregular by 

 numerous convolutions and folds. The flower is succeeded by 

 a large acid, ovate, yellowish fruit, which is one celled, many 

 seeded and crowned with the stigma. Its early period of ripen- 

 ing has given it the trivial name of May Apple. The root is 

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