26 RANUNCULACE^E. 



erect or ascending from next its base at the inner angle, ob- 

 ovate-oblong, smooth. Embryo oblong-linear, fully one third 

 the length of the firm fleshy albumen : radicle inferior, next 

 the hilum : cotyledons narrowly oblong. 



Herbs, smooth throughout or nearly so, perennial, with 

 simple, or sparingly corymbose, fistulous stems from matted 

 fibrose rootstocks, few alternate leaves, the upper small and 

 bract-like, and rather handsome corymbose flowers. Radi- 

 cal leaves ample, long-petioled, palmately veined, palmately 

 5- 11-cleft, with the lobes irregularly incised and toothed; 

 the veins and veinlets conspicuous underneath, freely reticu- 

 lated. 



Etymology. Dedicated to E. R. Trautvetter, a well-known botanist, 

 now Professor at Kiev, in Southern Russia. 



Geographical Distribution. The original species is found along- shad- 

 ed streams, throughout the Alleghany Mountains from Virginia southward, 

 and along their western confines : it also occurs sparingly in Illinois, and ap- 

 parently reappears in Northern Oregon. A second, but imperfectly known 

 species has been recently indicated by Siebold and Zuccarini in Japan. 



Observation. The genus seems to be about equally allied to Thalictrum 

 and to Hydrastis. 



PLATE 7. Trautvetteria palmata, F. df M. ; — the upper part of a 

 flowering plant, of the natural size. (From living specimens in- 

 troduced into the Cambridge Botanic Garden from the mountains of 

 Carolina.) 



1. Diagram of the customary aestivation of the sepals. 



2. Enlarged head of pistils, with one stamen remaining. 



3. Stamen enlarged, seen from the inside. 



4. Same, seen from the exterior. 



5. Detached pistil, enlarged. 



6. Same, with the ovary vertically divided, showing the ovule in place. 



7. Ovule magnified. 



8. Heads of fruit, natural size. 



9. Utricular achenium, enlarged. 



10. Transverse section of the same, and of the seed, 



11. Vertical section of the same ; the seed in place. 



12. Magnified vertical section of the seed, showing the slender embryo, 



which is unusually large for this order, in the albumen. 



