114 The Natural System of Botany. 



which they are occasionally used as medicine. They^T" 

 agree in being either herbaceous, or shrubby plants— n ? 

 becoming trees. et 



Of this order there are about twenty genera, and one h 

 dred and seven species, belonging to North America. Of 1, 

 genus Ranunculus alone there are reckoned thirty-eight spec' * 

 Several of these are well known, and are common in eve^ 

 meadow and by the side of every brook. B.. multifi&us, aflo^ 

 ing species, is curious from the delicate capillary form '" 

 which its leaves are divided. Several foreign species a 

 much cultivated in gardens, on account of their tendency t 

 become double. Among these, the varieties of R. asiaticus^ 

 endless. A single cultivator in England, once exhibited eight 

 hundred different ones. 



To this order belong the Anemonies, some species of which 

 are among the earliest spring flowers of this country. Othe 

 species are well known florist's flowers, and are cultivated 

 everywhere. In these the petals and sepals are colored alike 

 so that the corolla cannot be distinguished from the calyx! 

 When the flower has dropped off, there are seen in its place 

 little tufts of feathery tails, or oval woolly heads, instead of the 

 clusters of grains found in the Ranunculus. These tails are 

 the styles, which, having grown large and hairy, serve the 

 purpose of wings, by which the seeds are disseminated. Here 

 also belong the Hepaticas; one of which, the only native spe- 

 cies, H. triloba, is known to the youngest student of botany, 

 when he sees its delicate blue corolla peeping up from its 

 woolly leaves, on the side of a sunny bank, almost before the 

 snow is melted away. They differ from the Anemonies by 

 having either six or nine sepals and petals. 



Clematis, a genus of climbing plants, is found here, one of 

 which, C. Virginica, is familiar to country people under the 

 name of Virgin's Bower, and in July fills every thicket with 

 the fragrance of its white blossoms. These are almost the only 

 plants of the order which have woody stems. 



A subdivision of this order contains the Aconitum, or Helle- 

 bore, the Trollius or Globe Flower, the Coptis, or Golden- 

 thread, and also the Larkspur and Columbine. It would seem 

 as if the flowers of these two latter, bore litde resemblance to 



