64 



RANUNULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 



-,A. canadensis, Columbine. Delicate in appearance but hardy, ber 

 ing common on rocky hillsides. The long-stemmed compound leaves 

 arp light olive green. The flowers grade in color from yellow through 

 scarlet to red at the tip of the spurs; they nod on their pedicels so 

 that the spurs turn upward, but the pedicel becomes' erect when the 



fruit is ripe. The long spurs indicate 

 the relation of the flower to long- 

 tongued insects. April to June. 



DELPHINIUM 



The showy flowers are in ter- 

 minal racemes. The leaves are 

 palmately divided or cut. The five 

 Aquiiegia canadensis. Columbine. Sepals are irregular and petal-like, 



the upper one being prolonged into 

 a spur at the base. The petals are four and irregular, the upper 

 pair being continued backward into long spurs which are en- 

 closed in the spur of the calyx. (Named from Delphin, referring 

 to the shape of a flower, which is not unlike the conventional 

 outline of a dolphin.) 



ACTAEA 



Perennials, with broad, 2—3 ternately compound leaves, the ovate 

 leaflets sharply cleft and toothed. The white flowers occur in a 

 short and thick terminal raceme. The 

 sepals are 4 or 5, falling ofif when 

 the flower expands. The petals are 

 4 to 10, small, flat, and on slender 

 claws. The stamens are numerous and 

 have slender white filaments. The pistil 

 is single, the stigma being sessile and 

 2-lobed. 



A. alba. White Baneberey. The glob- 

 ular berries are white, the pedicels which 

 bear them becoming thickened in fruit, as 

 large as the peduncle, and red. The raceme is ellipsoid and the petals 

 slender, appearing to be transformed stamens. Common in rich woods 

 in April and May. 



Delphinium, Larkspur. 



