RANUNCULACE^E. (crowfoot family.) 35 



10. Troll ins. Petals many, minute and stamen-like, hollowed near the base. Pods 8-15 



sessile. Leaves palmately divided. 



11. Coptis. Petals 5-6, small, hollowed at the apex. Pods 3-7, long-stalked. Sepals 



deciduous. Leaves trifoliolate. 



12. Helleborus. Petals 8-10, small, tubular, 2-lipped. Pods several, sessile. Sepals 5, 



persistent, turning green with age. 



13. Aqullegla. Petals 5, spur-shaped, longer than the 5 deciduous sepals. Pods 5. 



* * Flower unsymmetrical and irregular. Pods several-seeded. 



14. Delphinium. Upper sepal spurred. Petals 4, of two forms ; the upper pair with 



long spurs, enclosed in the spur of the calyx. 



15. Aconitum. Upper sepal hooded, covering the two long-clawed small petals. 



* * # Flower symmetrical. Pods ripening only one seed. Shrubby. 



16. Zanthorhiza. Petals 5, small, 2-lobed, with claws. Stamens 5-10. Flowers in 



drooping compound racemes. 

 Tribe "V. CIMICIFUGEiE. Sepals imbricated, falling off as the flower opens. Pet- 

 als small and flat, or none. Pistils 1- several. Fruit a 2 - several-seeded pod or berry. 

 All the leaves alternate. 



17. Hydrastis. Flower solitary. Pistils several in a head, becoming berries in fruit, 2- 



seeded. Leaves simple, lobed. Petals none. 



18. Actsea. Flowers in a single short raceme. Pistil single, forming a many-seeded berry. 



Leaves 2 - 3-ternately compound. Petals manifest, but small. 



19. Cimicifuga. Flowers in long spiked racemes. Pistils 1-8, in fruit forming dry and 



several-seeded pods. Leaves 2 -3-ternately compound. 



1. CLEMATIS, L. Virgin's-Bower. 



Sepals 4, or rarely more, colored, the valvate margins turned inwards in the 

 bud. Petals none, or small. Achenia numerous in a head, bearing the persist- 

 ent styles as naked, hairy, or plumose tails. — Perennial herbs or vines, mostly 

 a little woody, and climbing by the bending or clasping of the leafstalks, rarely 

 low and erect. Leaves opposite. ( KX^/iari's, a name of Dioscorides for a climb- 

 ing plant with long and lithe branches.) 



§ 1. ATRAGENE, L. Some of the outer filaments enlarged and gradually passing 

 into small spatulate petals : peduncles bearing single large flowers : the thin sepals 

 widely spreading. 



1. C. verticill&ris, DC. Woody-stemmed climber, almost glabrous; 

 leaves trifoliolate, with slender common and partial petioles ; leaflets ovate or 

 slightly heart-shaped, pointed, entire, or on sterile stems 1 - 3-toothed or lobed ; 

 flower bluish-purple, 2' - 3' across ; tails of the fruit plumose. ( Atragene Amer- 

 icana, Sims.) — Rocky places in mountainous districts, Maine and Western 

 New England to Virginia, Wisconsin, and northwestward : rare. May. — A 

 pair of leaves with a peduncle between them, developed in spring from each of 

 the opposite buds, gives the appearance of a whorl, whence the specific name. 



§ 2. CLEMATIS proper. Petals entirely wanting. 



* Peduncles bearing single large nodding flowers : calyx leathery : anthers linear. 



•f- Stem low, erect and mostly simple: calyx silky outside, greenish. 



2. C. OChroletica, Ait. Leaves simple and entire, ovate or sometimes 

 3-lobed, almost sessile, silky beneath ; tails of the fruit very plumose. — Copses, 

 Long Island, Staten Island (Dr. Allen), Pennsylvania, and Virginia: rare. 

 May. 



