82 BERBERIDACE.E. 



shrivelling away. Seeds (one or both maturing) therefore 

 naked, stipitate on their thickened funiculi, spherical, large, 

 with a fleshy at length baccate testa, appearing like drupes ! 

 Albumen corneous, deeply umbilicate at the hilum, its verti- 

 cal section deeply reniform. Embryo minute, partly received 

 into a sort of cup formed by the folding of the tegmen in the 

 axis of the umbilicate basal depression, cylindrical : radicle 

 short, inferior, about the length of the thick cotyledons. 



Herbaceous ; the fleshy rootstock sending up in early 

 spring a simple and naked stem, bearing near the summit a 

 triternately compound leaf destitute of a common petiole, and 

 often a smaller and similar leaf at the very base of the ter- 

 minal raceme or panicle. Leaflets 2-5-cleft at the apex, 

 glaucous, as also the blue drupaceous seeds. 



(Characters from the North American species only.) 



Etymology, &c. Leontice is a name abbreviated by Linnaeus from the 

 Leontopetalum of Tournefort. Caulophylluin, which may very probably re- 

 sume its generic rank, is formed of Kavhos, stem, and tfiCWov, leaf; the stem 

 seeming to form a stalk for the single, large and compound leaf. 



Properties- The root is an " Indian medicine," but its real qualities 

 are unsettled. The albumen of the seed has been proposed as a substitute 

 for coffee. 



PLATE 32. Leontice (Caulophyllum) thalictroides, Linn.; — sum- 

 mit of stem, natural size when coming into flower. (Botanic Gar- 

 den, Cambridge ; May : from Western Xew York.) 



1. Back view of a flower-bud, showing the 3 bractlets (sepals of authors). 



2. Diagram of the aestivation, &c. 



3. Enlarged flower, seen from above. 



4. A bractlet ; 5 and 6, sepals, enlarged. 



7. Enlarged petal, from the outside ; 8, inside view of the same. 



■J, 10. Magnified stamens, seen from the outside. 

 11, 12. Same, s sen from the inner side. 

 13. Pistil, enlai gi \ 



1-1, 15. Same, transversely and vertically divided. 

 Hi. Pistil, a week after the floral envelopes have fallen, enlarged. 

 IT, 18. Same, still later ; the pericarp ruptured by the growing seeds. 



19. The two full-grown seeds on their funiculi ; natural size. 



20. Vertical section of one of them. 



21. Embryo, detached, and highly magnified. 



