POPPY FAMILY 



BLOODROOT 



SanguinHria canadensis. 



Sanguinaria, from the color of the juice. 



A low perennial, with thick, prostrate rootstocks, sending up in 

 earliest spring a one-flowered, naked scape protected by a palmately 

 lobed leaf rolled around it. The entire plant is surcharged with red- 

 orange acrid juice. Grows in open woods from Nova Scotia to Mani- 

 toba and south to Florida, Arkansas, and Nebraska. April and May. 



Rootstock. — Horizontal, thick; juice red. 



Leaves. — Basal, palmately veined and lobed, cordate or reniform, 

 five to twelve inches across. 

 Sepals. — Two, that drop as the flower opens. 



Petals. — Eight to twelve, white, oblong, arranged in two or three rows, 

 early deciduous. 



Stamens. — Many, considerably shorter than the petals; filaments 

 thread-like; anthers linear. 

 Ovary. — Oblong, one-celled; stigma grooved. 

 Capsule. — Oblong, narrow; seeds smooth, crested. 



Bloodroots whose roUed-up leaves if you oncurl, 

 Each on 'em's cradle to a baby pearl. 



— "Biglow Papers," Lowell. 



From the terminal buds of the thickened underground stems of 

 the Bloodroot there arises in very early spring a flower-stalk 

 bearing, as a rule, a single blossom. For a time both stalk and 

 opening bud are enveloped and protected by a closely rolled leaf, 

 but this gives way finally and discloses a starry flower of snowy 

 whiteness with a heart of gold. When in full bloom the petals 

 fall so easily that it will hardly bear transportation, for with a 

 touch the stem stands naked. 



Like all the poppies, the calyx falls when the bud opens, and 

 the full-blown flower has none. 



The bloody name of Sanguinaria is due to the acrid red-orange 

 juice with which the entire plant is surcharged, and which flows 

 freely when rootstock, leaf-stalk, or flower stem is broken. 



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