RANUNCULACE.E. 21 



Plate 5. 

 HEPATICA, Dill. 



Involucrum triphyllum, integrifolium, flori proximum, eo- 

 dem minora, calycem referentia. Castera ut Anemones. — 

 Gemmae radicales squamosa?, primo vere scapos unifloros, 

 tandem folia simplicia tri- (rarius 5 — 7-) loba, promentes. 



Hepatica, Dillen. Nov. Gen. 108. Linn. Hort. Cliff, p. 223. Haller, 



Helv. 1156. DC. Syst. 1. p. 215. Torr. & Gray, Fl. 1. p. 14. 

 Anemone Hepatica, Linn. Sp. Sect. Hepatica, Kocb, Pritzel, 1. c. 



L.iver-L.eaf. 



Calyx of 6 to 9, rarely 12, oblong petaloid sepals, imbri- 

 cated in aestivation in two or three rows, spreading, early 

 deciduous. Petals none. Stamens indefinite, hypogy- 

 nous : filaments filiform, glabrous : anthers oval, slightly 

 extrorse, the cells opening lengthwise at or near the mar- 

 gins. Pistils 12 to 20, crowded on the convex summit of 

 the receptacle (gynophore) : ovary one-celled, one-ovuled, 

 apiculate with a very short style, which is stigmatose 

 down the inner side. Ovule suspended from the summit 

 of the cell, anatropous ; the raphe dorsal. 



Achenia in a small loose head, at length short-stipitate 

 (in H. acutiloba), ovate-oblong, compressed, not margined, 

 hairy, pointed with the short naked style. Receptacle 

 of the fruit nearly hemispherical, pilose-alveolate. Seed 

 suspended, conformed to the cell, which it fills. Albumen, 

 Embryo, &c, as in Anemone. 



Acaulescent dwarf herbs, with fibrous perennial roofs, 

 producing from radical scaly buds, in earliest spring, simple 

 one-flowered scapes, and soon after several 3 - 5-lobed heart- 

 shaped leaves, which become thick or coriaceous in the 

 course of the summer, and last through the winter, until 

 their successors begin to unfold. Vernation involute-plicate. 



