22 ELEMENTS OP BOTANY. 



shaped, many-seeded. Small herbs growing in damp or 

 shaded places. 



(S. media), Common Chickweed. Stems weak and procum- 

 bent, each traversed lengthwise by a hairy line ; leaves ovate or 

 oblong, the lower ones with hairy petioles ; petals shorter than the . 

 sepals ; stamens 3-10. Annual. 



RANUNCULACEJE, CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



Mostly herbs, with colorless and usually acrid juice. 

 Sepals 3-6. Petals 4-16, or absent. Stamens numerous, 

 hypogynous. Pistils all distinct and unconnected with the 

 perianth. Fruit consisting of numerous akenes (Fig. 169), of 

 several follicles (Fig. 171), or sometimes of berries. Leaves 

 without stipules, often clasping at the base (Fig. 170), fre- 

 quently much cut or divided. 



I. ANEMONE, ANEMONE, WIND-FLOWER. 



Sepals few or numerous, colored and petal-like ; petals 

 usually wanting ; akenes pointed, or with long, feathery 

 tails. Perennial herbs, with radical leaves, and 2 or 3 oppo- 

 site or whorled stem-leaves, constituting an involucre some 

 distance below the flower or flower-cluster. 



a. (A. cylindrica), Long-fruited Anemone. Plant about 2 

 ft. high, branching, with an involucre of long-petioled, divided and 

 cleft leaves, from within which spring several long naked peduncles. 

 Flowers greenish-white. Head of fruit cylindrical, composed of very 

 many densely woolly akenes. 



h. (A. nemorosa). Wind-flower, Wood Anemone. Stem sim- 

 ple, from a thread-like root-stalk ; involucre of 3 leaves, each petioled, 

 and of 3 leaflets, which are cut, toothed, or parted ; peduncle 

 1-flowered ; sepals 4-7, white, often tinged with bluish outside; 

 carpels 15 or 20. 



II. HEPATICA, LIVERLEAF, LIVERWORT, NOBLE 

 LIVERWORT. 



Involucre of 3 small simple leaves, so close to the flower 

 as to look like a calyx. Leaves all radical, heart-shaped, 



