KEY TO THE SPECIES 23 



' XXI. RANUNCULACE^ (Crowfoot Family) 



Herbs with flower parts all distinct, 3-15 sepals, petals 3-15 

 or wanting, numerous stamens or rarely few, and many or few 

 pistils becoming either pods, achenes, or berries. (See Plant 

 Structures, p. 259.) When the petals are wanting the calyx is 

 often colored like a corolla. 



* Fruit a follicle with several ovules. 

 ^- Flowers regular. 



1. Caltha. Leaves simple; petals none; sepals petal-like, 7-13; follicles 

 several, forming a head. 



2. Aquilegia. Leaves compound ; petals 5, produced backward into a hollow 

 spur ; follicles 5. 



^- ^- Flowers irregular. 



3. Delphinium. Leaves palmately cleft or divided ; petals 4, the upper 

 spurred and projecting backward into the spur of the upper one of the 5 petal-like 

 sepals ; follicles many-seeded. 



4. Aconltum. Leaves palmately lobed ; petals 3, covered by the upper sepal, 

 which is arched into a hood or helmet ; follicles 3-5. 



* * Fruit an achene. 



•*- Petals none or inconspicuous ; sepals petal-like. 



5. Anemone. Flowers subtended by an involucre; sepals indefinite; achenes 

 tailless. 



6. Pulsatilla. Flowers subtended by an involucre; sepals 5-7; achenes with 

 long feathery tails. 



7. Clematis. Involucres wanting ; sepals 4, valvate ; achenes tailed. 



8. Atragene. Like Clematis ; the sepals very large ; small petals present. 

 ^- ^- Sepals and petals both present. 



9. Ranunculus. Petals yellow, with a nectariferous pit at the base; achenes 

 compressed ; leaves simple. 



10. Batrachinm. Petals white ; achenes transversely wrinkled ; leaves dis- 

 sected. 



11. Cyrtorhyncha. Petals yellow, narrow; achenes terete; leaves compound. 



12. Oxygraphis. Petals yellow; achenes longitudinally striate; leaves simple, 

 ere n ate. 



1. CALTHA (Marsh Maeigold) 



Smooth herbs with round or oblong leaves with cordate base ; sepals large, 

 showy, early deciduous ; stamens numerous : follicles many-seeded. 



1. Caltha rotundifolia (Huth.) Greene (Elk Slip). Leaves radical, rather 

 thick, with narrow basal sinus, entire or dentate ; scapes 1-15 cm. high, one flow- 

 ered • sepals oblong-obovate, white or bluish on the outside. Abundant in wet 

 aub-afpine parks. 



3. AQUILEGIA (Columbine) 



Herbs with ternately compound leaves, lobed leaflets, large showy flowers ter- 

 minating the branches, 5 sepals colored like the petals, 6 petals with short spread- 



