Dicotyledones. 43 



I. BERBERIS. Barberry. 



(From Berherys^ Arabic name for the fruit.) 



Shrubs with yellow wood ; leaves often spiny. Flowers usually ter- 

 minal, solitary or racemed. Bractlets subtending the 6 sepals. The 

 6 petals obovate, with 2 glandular spots {nectaries) above the claw. 

 The 6 stamens sensitive and closing around the pistil when shocked. 

 Fruit a i-seeded berry. 



1. Berberis vulgaris, L. (L,, vulgaris, common.) European Barberry. A 

 smooth shrub, from 6 to 8 feet high. Twigs ash-colored, leaves simple, alternate or 

 fascicled, obovate or spatulate, bristly serrate. Inflorescence a many-flowered 

 drooping raceme. Petals not notched. Berries oblong. In thickets. 



2. Berberis Canadensis, Mill. American Barberry. Shrubs from i to 6 

 feet high, with dark brown twigs. Leaves obovate or spatulate, with spreading 

 teeth. Racemes few-flowered. Petals emarginate or notched at the apex. Berries 

 from oval to nearly globose. 



II. CAULOPHYLLUM. Blue Cohosh. 



(Gr , kavlos, stem: phyllon, leaf, the stem seeming to form a stalk for the large sessile leaf) 



Herbs from thickened rootstocks. Stem simple, bearing a large ter- 

 nately compound leaf, and terminated by a raceme or panicle of greenish 

 yellow or purplish flowers. Sepals 6, subtended by 3-4 bractlets. 

 Petals 6, thick and somewhat hooded. Ovary finally bursting and 

 withering away, leaving the 2 spherical, drupelike seeds naked on their 

 seed stalks. 



I. Caulophyllum thalictroides, Michx. (Gr., thalictron, meadow rue; eidos, 

 form.) Blue Cohosh. From i to 3 feet high. Leaflets 2-3-lobed; divisions of 

 the leaf long-petioled. Flowers greenish purple. In rich woods. 



m. PODOPHYLLUM. Mandrake or May Apple. 



(Gr., pons, foot: phyllon, leaf) 



Erect, perennial herbs from horizontal, poisonous rootstocks. Leaves 

 large, peltate, and palmately lobed. Flowers solitary ; white, sometimes 

 pink. Sepals 6, petaloid and fugacious. Petals 6-9, exceeding the 

 sepals. Stamens as many or twice as many as the petals, the linear 

 anthers dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary usually i, and ovules in many 

 rows on the large parietal placenta. Fruit, a fleshy berry. 



r. Podophyllum peltatum, L. (L.,^f/^a/«j, armed with a small shield.) MAN- 

 DRAKE or May Apple. From i to \\ feet high. Flowerless stems terminated by 



