RANUNCULACE®. 67 
GENUS XIV.—ACT AA. Linn. 
Sepals 3 to 5, sub-equal, petaloid, deciduous. Petals 4 to 10, 
small, flat, spatulate, with slender claws. Carpel 1, with numerous 
ovules. Fruit a berry, containing smooth, flattish seeds. 
Perennial herbs, with a rhizome sending up erect stems. Leaves 
alternate, ternately bi- or tri-pinnate. Flowers small, in short 
racemes. 
SPECIES I—ACTAA SPICATA. Linn. 
Pratt XLIX.* 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Hely. Vol. IV. Ran. Tab. CXXI. Fig. 4739. 
Raceme oblong. Pedicels about as long as the flower, slightly 
thickened in fruit. Berry purplish-black when ripe. 
In woods in the North of England, but very local, occurring 
near Scarborough and at Ingleborough, in Yorkshire ; and is also 
stated to grow in the Lake district, near Ambleside and Ulswater. 
Naturalized at Cleish Castle, in Kinross-shire. 
England, [Scotland]. Perennial. Summer. 
Rootstock a short blackish rhizome. Stem erect, 1 to 2 feet 
high, simple, seldom branched, bearing 1 to 4 stalked leaves, which 
are twice or thrice ternately pinnate, with ovoid or sub-rhomboidal 
leaflets, 1 to 38 inches long, regularly lobed and deeply serrate. 
Stipules adnate, with short, free, rounded auricles. Peduncle 
pubescent, terminal; but occasionally there are shorter ones from 
the axils of the upper leaves. Raceme 1 to 2 inches long, compact 
while in flower, lengthening and becoming more lax as the fruit 
ripens. Pedicels pubescent, ascending in flower, patent or divaricate 
in fruit. Sepals 4, whitish, oval, blunt, concave. Petals much 
smaller than the sepals, spatulate or oblanceolate, the slender claw 
nearly as long as the limb; sometimes absent. Filaments dilated in 
the upper part. Berry shortly ovoid, } inch long, at length black. 
Flowers scarcely } inch across. Plant dark green, glabrous, slightly 
pubescent. 
Baneberry, Herb Christopher. 
French, Actée en Hpi. German, Schwarzwurz. 
The generic name comes from axry (akte), the Greek name of the Elder, which these 
plants much resemble in foliage and fruit. The odour of this plant is powerfully disagree- 
* The Plate is E. B. 918, with the fruit added by Mr. J. E. Sowerby. 
