CROWFOOT FAMILY 



RANUNCULACEAE 



TALL ANEMONE. THIMBLEWEED 



Anemone 'virginiana L. 



According to the Greek poets the Anemone originated 

 in the tears dropped by Venus while she was grieving in 

 the forest over the death of her sweetheart, Adonis, and 



all sorts of mystic qualities have 

 been attributed to these plants. 

 Present knowledge, however, 

 forces us to abandon most of the 

 ancient beliefs and we are left 

 only the fact that the roots of 

 some species have certain medic- 

 inal qualities. 



The Tall Anemone or Thimble- 

 weed is found in woods and meadows 

 from Maine to Minne- 

 'C^ sota and southward, and 

 ^ blooms from June to 

 August. It has a stout 

 hairy stem 2-3 feet tall 

 and usually branching 

 at the involucre. Leaves 

 forming the involucre 

 are 2-5 but usually 3. 

 The basal leaves are 

 long petioled but other- 

 wise similar to those of 

 the involucre. 



The flowers are borne 

 on long peduncles, of which the earliest one is naked and the rest 

 with a pair of bracts near the middle. The 5 petallike sepals 

 are white or greenish white, and the stamens and pistils are 

 numerous. The fruits are akenes clustered to torm an oblong 

 or somewhat cylindrical head sometimes i inch high or more, 

 and from which the plant gets the name Thimbleweed. 



The Silky Thimbleweed, Anemone cylindrica Gray, is a smaller 

 plant with a grayish pubescence and a longer head ot truit. It grows 

 on barren rocky knolls and other open places from eastern New 

 Brunswick and northern New Jersey to Manitoba and Kansas, and 

 is found also in the Rocky mountains. Its smaller flowers are 2-6 

 on very long upright peduncles, all ot which are naked. 



104 



