CROWFOOT FAMILY 



Flowers. — April, May, with or before the leaves. Small, 

 starlike, prune-purple shading to brown; in compound drooping 

 racemes which are produced, together with the leaves, from the 

 terminal bud. 



Calyx. — Sepals five, petaloid, ovate, acute, imbricate in bud. 



Corolla. — Petals five, hypogynous, much smaller than the 

 sepals, dark prune, obscurely two-lobed, slightly concave, raised 

 on a claw. 



Stamens. — Five to ten, hypogynous, filaments short; anthers 

 large for the size of the flower. 



Pistil. — Carpels five to fifteen, entirely distinct, sessile, pointed 

 with curved styles, two-ovuled ; one ovule aborts, making the 

 pod one-seeded. 



Fruit. — Follicles, borne in small clusters along the axis of the 

 raceme, greenish yellow, inflated, one-seeded, curved at apex, 

 minutely beaked, inconspicuous. August. 



This tiny shrub is not very well known, there is so lit- 

 tle about it to attract attention. A botanist finds it in- 

 teresting because it belongs to the Ranunculacece, whose 

 genera are chiefiy herbs. The landscape gardener val- 

 ues it for its hardy, free-growing habit, both in sun and 

 shade; and uses it as a dwarf undershrub to clothe the 

 ground under trees or to carry up the line of green from 

 the grass to the higher plants. In winter, each stem 

 and branchlet bears one terminal bud with two or three 

 small lateral ones. Late in April or in early May, this 

 terminal bud opens and there comes forth, together 

 with the leaves, a cluster of racemes — sometimes single 

 and sometimes compound — of tiny, five-pointed, prune- 

 colored stars, each with a golden centre. The central 

 stem of the flower cluster, and the short stems that 

 bear the blossoms are all of the same rich purple color. 

 Botanically the points of the stars are sepals ; the co- 



