THALICTRUM 



THALICTRUM. FEATHERED COLUMBINE. MEADOW RUE 



Thalictrum aquilegifdlium. 



Very graceful, pretty-flowered perennial with finely decompound foli- 

 age. Europe and northern Asia. May, July. 



Slem. — Large, hollow, one to three feet high, glaucous. 

 Leaves. — Alternate; onceor twice three to five parted; leaflets stalked 

 or nearly sessile, roundish, slightly lobed or obscurely toothed. 

 Flowers. — In a corymbose panicle; dioecious. 

 Sepals. — White, deciduous. 

 Petals. — Wanting. 

 Stamens. — Purple or white, many. 

 Carpels. — Three-angled, winged, one-seeded. 



Thalictrum is valued for the' feathery heads of flowers which 

 contrast well with the handsome stems and leaves. The flowers 

 are abundant, crowded, and without petals. They lose their 

 sepals early and then become simply a mass of slender stamens 

 exceedingly attractive and pretty. Thalictrum polyganum, the 

 Tall Meadow Rue of Northern lowlands, is worthy of a place in 

 the garden. It grows three to five feet high and produces masses 

 of white feathery bloom. Early Meadow Rue, Thalictrum dibi- 

 cum, shows its tasselled fringe of tawny gold by the woodland 

 paths in April. 



HEPATICA. LIVERWORT 



Hepdtica triloba. Hepdtica acutlloba. 



Hepalica, liver; referring to the shape of the leaf. 



A perennial herb native to the open woods of the northern parts of 

 America, Europe, and Asia. Forms tufts, blooms in the forest before 

 the leaves of the trees come out. March, April. 



Scapes. — Four to six inches high, downy. 



ieai^ei.— Long-petioled, thick, evergreen, three-lobed, reniform. 



Flowers.— &\\ie, lavender, white, pale-pink, borne solitary on erect 

 scape; with three involucral leaves a quarter or an eighth of an inch 

 below the blossoms looking like a calyx. 



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