236 CLASS XIII. ORDER VI. 



At that season its bright yellow blossoms are very coinmoa and 

 conspicuous in meadows and wet situations. Stem upright, fur- 

 rowed. Leaves smooth, heart or kidney shaped, crenate, the 

 radical ones on petioles, those of the stem nearly sessile. Flow- 

 ers on axillary stalks, with large, roundish, glossy petals of a 

 bright yellow, as are the st,amens. The young buds are some- 

 limes substituted for capers. — Perennial. 



246. HYDROPELTIS. 



Hydropeltis purpurea. 3Iich. Wafer Target. 



Syn. IxoDiA PALusTRis. Solander. 

 Brasenia hydropeltis. Muhl. 



An aquatic plant, the only species of its genus. Its leaves, 

 which can hardly be mistaken for any thing else, are perfectly 

 elliptical, with the leaf stalk inserted exactly in their centre, form- 

 ing a centro-peltate leaf. Their upper surface is smooth and 

 shining, like those of the water lilies, among which they float. 

 Flowers dark purple ; petals six, the three outermost shortest. 

 Stamens numerous. Germs oblong with incurved styles. The 

 immersed portions of the plant, particularly the stalks and young 

 leaves, are clothed with a thick gelatinous substance, transpa- 

 rent, and insipid to the taste. — In Fresh pond, and other stagnant 

 waters. — July. — Perennial. 



247. HEPATICA. 

 Hepatica triloba. Willd. cnzim. Ilcpatica. Early Anemone. 

 Leaves mostly three lobed, the lobes entire ; scape 

 one flowered. 



Syn. Anemone hepatica. L. 



This delicate little plant is one of the earliest visitors in spring, 

 flowering in sunny spots before the snow has left the ground. 

 The flowers appear before the leaves on hairy scapes. Calyx of 

 three ovate, obtuse, hairy leafets, situated on the scape at a dis- 

 tance below the petals. Petals oblong, obtuse, purple, some- 

 times white. Seeds numerous, sessile, ovate, acute, hairy, sup- 

 ported by the persistent calyx. The leaves are heart shaped at 

 base, and divided into three, rarely five, entire lobes. 



