392 EANUNCULACBAE (CKOWKOOT FAMILY) 



3. NELUfflBO [Tourn.] Adans. Sacked Bean 



The only genus of the subfamily. (Name Ceylonese.) 



1. N. l&tea (Willd.) Pers. (Yellow Neldmbo, Water Chinquapin.) 

 Leaves usually raised high out of the water, circular, 3-6 dm. in diameter, with 

 the center depressed or cupped ; flower pale yellow, 1.2-2.5 dm. broad ; anthers 

 tipped with a slender hooked appendage. (Nelumbium luteum Willd.) — Con- 

 cord and Osterville, Mass., s. Ct. (probably of Indian introduction) to L. Ontario, 

 L. Erie, Mich., Minn., e. Neb., and southw. ; rare in the Middle States. — Tubers 

 farinaceous and edible. Seeds also eatable. Embryo like that of Castalia on a 

 large scale; cotyledons thick and fleshy, inclosing a plumule of 1 or 2 well- 

 formed young leaves, inclosed in a delicate stipule-like sheath. 



N. N0cfrEEA Gaertn., the oriental Lotus, with pink flowers, has become 

 established about Bordentown, N. J., where artificially introduced. 



4. BHAS]&NIA Schreb. "Water Shield 



Sepals 3 or 4. Petals 3 or 4, linear, sessile. Stamens 12-18 ; filaments fili- 

 form ; anthers innate. Pistils 4-18, forming little club-shaped indehiscerit pods ; 

 stigmas linear. Seeds 1-2, pendulous on the dorsal suture ! — ^Kootstock creep- 

 ing. Leaves alternate, long-petioled, centrally peltate, oval, floating. Flowers 

 axillary, small, dull-purple. (Name of uncertain origin.) 



1. B. Schreberi Gmel. Leaves entire or shallowly crenate, 2-10 cm. across. 

 (S. peltata Pursh. ; B. purpurea Casp.) — Ponds and slow streams. June- Aug. 

 (Asia, Afr., Austral.) 



6. CAB6mBA Aublet. 



Sepals 3. Petals 3, oval, bi-auriculate above the very short claw. Stamens 

 3-6 ; anthers short, extrorse. Pistils 2-4, with small terminal stigmas. Seeds 

 3, pendulous. — Slender, mainly submersed, with opposite or verticillate capil- 

 lary-dissected leaves, a few floating, alternate and centrally peltate. Plowers 

 single on long axillary peduncles. (Probably an aboriginal name.) 



1. C. caroliniana Gray. Floating leaves linear-oblong or -obovate, often with 

 a basal notch ; flowers 1.2-1,8 cm. broad, white with yellow spots at base ; sta- 

 mens 6. — Ponds, s. III. {Schneck) to Fla. and Tex. May-Sept. 



RANUKCULAcEAE (Crowfoot Family) 



Berbs or sometimes woody plants, with a colorless and usually acrid juice, 

 polypetalous, or apetalous with the calyx often colored like a corolla, hypogynous ; 

 the sepals, petals, numerous stamens, and many or few {rarely single) pistils all 

 distinct and unconnected. Flowers regular or irregiflar. Sepals 3-15. Petals 

 2-15, or wanting. Stamens iiideflnite, rarely few. Fruits either dry pods, or 

 seed-like (achenes), or berries. Seeds anatropous (when solitai-y and suspended 

 the rhaphe dorsal), with hard albumen and a minute embryo. Leaves often dis- 

 sected, their stalks dilated at the base, sometimes with stipule-like appendages. — 

 A large family, including some acrid-narcotic poisons. 



Tribe I. ANEm6nEAE. Sepals 8-20, often petal-like, imbricated tn the bud. Stamens rtoBtly 

 numerous. Achenes numerous or several, in a head or spike. — Herbs, never climbing ; leaves 

 alternate or radical, the upper sometimes opposite or whorled. 



* Petals evident ; sepals usually 5 ; achenes many. 

 1. Ranunculus. Petals 5 (or rarely more), yellow or white, with a scale or gland at base. 

 .^Chenes numerous, capitate. Seed ereot or ascending. 



