CoPTis. RANUNCULACE^. 19 



Rliizoma horizontal, throwing off numerous long and slender bright yellow fibres of an in- 

 tensely bitter taste. Leaves evergreen, on long petioles, very smooth and shining, strongly 

 veined ; leaflets about an inch long. Scape slender, but somewhat rigid and wiry, 3-6 

 inches long. Flowers about two-thirds of an inch in diameter. Sepals 5-7 oblong, obtuse, 

 white, sometimes purplish underneath. Petals much shorter than the sepals, yellow at the 

 base. Carpels acuminate with the persistent curved style. Seeds oblong, smooth and shining ; 

 raphe indistinct. 



Common in sphagnous swamps, and in damp shady woods around the roots of trees ; flower- 

 ing in May, and ripening its fruit about the end of June. The root is a pure bitter, like that of 

 Quassia, without any astringency. It is extensively employed as a tonic, both in domestic 

 practice, and as an ordinary article of the materia medica. 



8. HELLEBORUS. Adans. ; Endl. gen. 4789. HELLEBORE. 



[From the Greek, Mcin, to cause death, and 4ora, food; the plant being poisonous.] 



Sepals 5, persistent, mostly greenish. Petals 8 - 10, very short, tubular, 2-lipped. Sta- 

 mens numerous. Stigma orbicular. Follicles 3-10, slightly cohering at the base, coria- 

 ceous, many-seeded. Seeds elliptical, fungous at the hilum. — Perennial herbs (natives of 

 Europe and Asia). Leaves coriaceous, the radical ones palmately or pedately divided. 

 Flowers large, nodding. 



1. Helleborus viridis, Linn. Green Hellebore. 



Radical leaves glabrous, pedately divided ; the cauline few, nearly sessile, palmately 

 parted; peduncles often geminate; sepals roundish-ovate, green (DC). — Jacq. jl. Austr. 

 M06 ; Eng. bot. t. 200 ; Muld. cat. p. 56 ; DC. prodr. 1. p. 47 ; Torr. <^ Gr.fl. N.Am. I. 

 p. 659 (suppl.). 



Plant about a foot high, smooth, usually a little branched above. Rhizoma rather thick and 

 woody. Radical leaves on long petioles, 5-8 inches wide, divided into 7-15 lanceolate 

 serrated lobes. Flowers an inch or more in diameter. Petals shorter than the stamens. 



On the plains near Jamaica, and in a wood near Brooklyn, Long Island (Mr. A. Halscy, 

 and Mr. R. J. Brownne). April. A native of Europe, but fully naturalized in these locahlies. 



9. AQUILEGIA. Linn. ; Endl. gen. 4795. COLUMBINE. 



[Latin, aipiUa, an cagic ; tho spurs of the petals having some resemblance to eagles' claws.] 

 Sepals 5, deciduous, colored. Petals 5, somewhat bilabiate ; the outer lip large, flat and 

 spreading ; inner one very small, produced at the base into as many hollow spurs or horns, 

 which descend between the sepals. Follicles 5, erect, many-sccdcd, pointed with the 

 style. — Perennial herbs, with bi- or triternatc leaves. Flowers terminal, scattered. 



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