6 RANUNCULACEai. 



\ 

 straight: follicles glabrous, widely divergent.— Borders of thickets, and 

 in open stony ground near hilltops. April. 



* * Scarlet-flowered species; roots not fleshy. 



6. 1). nndicaule, Torr. & Gray. Leafy at base of stem only, 1—2 ft. 

 high: raceme very lax, somewhat pyramidal: calyx 1 in. long or more, 

 bright scarlet, not widely expanding, the spur straight: petals yellow: 

 follicles glabrous, divergent at summit, often narrowed below to a short 

 stipe. — Eocky slopes and summits of the higher hills. April, May. 



6. A({UILEGIA, Tragus (Columbine). Perennials. Leaves mostly 

 radical and twice terrate; leaflets thin, their lobes rounded. Flowers 

 large, nodding, solitary at the ends of the branches. Sepals 5, plane, 

 colored. Petals 5, tubular, projecting behind the sepals. Pistils 5, 

 becoming follicles. 



1. A. trim cat a, Fisch. & Mey. Usually glabrous, 1 — 3 ft. high: fl. 

 1% — 2 in. broad, scarlet tinged with yellow: sepals widely spreading or 

 reflexed: petals with very short truncate limb. — Borders of moist shady 

 thickets; common. April — June. 



7. THALICTRUM, Diosc. (Meadow Rue). Dioecious tall perennials 

 with fibrous roots, hollow stems, bi- or triternately compound leaves and 

 many panicled greenish apetalous flowers. Sepals 4 — 7, small, deciduous. 

 Stamens oo , with linear anthers on capillary filaments. Pistils several, 

 becoming ribbed or veined achenes tipped with the persistent style. 



1. T. polycarpum, Wats. Stout, 3 — 4 ft. high, glabrous, not glaucous, 

 aromatic-scented: leaflets with acute or acuminate lobes: sepals lan- 

 ceolate, not scarious : achenes very many in the head, broadly obovoid, 

 short-stipitate, compressed, turgid, the sides marked with low more or 

 less anostomosing veins.— Open places near streams, in the first Coast 

 Range. May, June. 



2. T. hesperiuin, Greene. Glabrous, except the growing parts, and 

 lower face of leaves, which have a sparse glandular pubescence; herbage 

 ill-scented (not aromatic): lobes of leaflets rounded: sepals 5, not scarious: 

 achenes fewer, obliquely oval or semi-obovate, substipitate, the ribs or 

 veins mostly distinct and parallel.— Oakland Hills and inner Coast 

 Range generally. 



8. ACTiEA, Linn. Perennial. Leaves few, ample, ternate and fern- 

 like. Flowers small, white, in a single terminal short raceme. Sepals 

 about 4, caducous. Petals 1 or more. Stamens oo. Pistil 1. Berry- 

 like pericarp with a false suture running down one side; seeds flattened 

 and semiorbicular, packed in two vertical rows. 



1. A. arguta, Nutt. Stem 2—3 ft. high; leaves 1 or more, with acute 

 coarsely and incisely serrate leaflets : raceme 1 — 2 in. long, oblong, often 



