114 GOLDEN SEAL 



family (Ranunculaceae). It has a thick yellow root-stock, which, 

 sends up an erect, hairy stem about 1 foot in height, surrounded 

 at the base by 2 or 3 yellowish scales. The yellow color of the 

 roots and scales extends up the stem so far as it is covered by 

 soil, while the portion of the stem above ground has a purplish 

 color. The stem, which has only two leaves, seems to fork at the 

 top, one branch bearing a large leaf and the other a smaller one 

 and a flower. (Fig. 46.) A third leaf, which is much smaller than 

 the other two and stemless, is occasionally produced. The leaves 

 are palmately 5 to 9 lobed, the lobes broad, acute, sharply and 

 unequally toothed; they are prominently veined on the lower sur- 

 face, and at flowering time, when they are very much wrinkled, 

 they are only partially developed, but they continue to expand 

 until they are from 6 to B inches in diameter, becoming thinner in 

 texture and smoother. The upper leaf subtends or incloses the 

 flower bud. The greenish white flower appears about April or 

 May, but it is of short duration, lasting only five or six days. 

 It is less than half an inch in diameter and, instead of petals, has 

 three small petallike sepals, which fall away as soon as the flower 

 expands, leaving only the numerous stamens (as many as 40 or 50), 

 in the center of which are about a dozen pistils, which finally de- 

 velop into a round, fleshy, berry-like head which ripens in July or 

 August. The fruit when ripe turns a bright red and resembles a 

 large raspberry, whence the common name "ground-raspberry" is 

 derived. (Fig. 47.) It contains from 10 to 20 small, black, 

 shining, hard seeds. 



Description of rootstoch. — -The fresh root-stock of golden- 

 seal, which has a rank, nauseating odor, is bright yellow, both 

 internally and externally, with fibrous, yellow rootlets produced 

 from the sides. It is from li to 2i inches in length, from one- 



