BUTTERCUP FAMILY. 165 



1. P. brownii Dougl. Peony. Somewhat fleshy plant 8 to 14 in. high; 

 leaves glaucous or pale ternately or biternately divided, chiefly radical, the 

 lobes obovate to linear-spatulate; peduncles 1 or 2 in. long; petals orbicular, 

 plane, dull brownish-red, thick and leathery, scarcely longer than the round- 

 ish concave sepals; follicles mostly 5, broadly oblong, smooth, 1 to l]/ 2 in. 

 long; stem bending over in age and the fruit resting on the ground. 



South Coast Eanges; Southern California; northern Sierra Nevada and 

 north to Washington, where the root was used by the Indians ' ' to give their 

 horses long wind'' (J. G. Cooper). A rare herb within our limits. 



Caltha biflora DC. Perennial with simple round-cordate radical leaves 

 and 1 to 2-flowered scapes ; flowers showy, with 7 to 10 white sepals and no 

 petals; follicles stipitate. — Marshy slopes, subalpine, Sierra Xevada and north- 

 ward. 



2. ISOPYRUM L. 



Low glabrous slender perennials with ternately compound leaves and 2 to 

 3-lobed petiolulate leaflets. Flowers commonly white, solitary, terminal or 

 axillary. Sepals 5, petal-like. Petals none. Stamens 10 to 30. Follicles 

 5 to 10, oblong or ovate, 2 to several-seeded. (Isopyron, the Greek name of 

 a species of Fumaria.) 



1. I. occidentale H. & A. Plant of delicate habit; stems from a cluster 

 of slender fusiform roots, branching above, 6 to 10 in. high; leaflets obovate 

 or fan-shaped, 5 to 9 lines long, glaucous beneath; flowers white, 6 to 9 lines 

 in diameter; stamens 23 to 27; follicles sessile, 6 lines long; seeds 8 to 9, 

 wrinkled. 



A rare herb of shady places in the lower mountains. Sierra Xevada: Forest 

 Hill; Mariposa. Coast Ranges: Vaca Mts. ; Gabilan Eange (fls. rose-red). 



T. stipitatum Gray. Tufted plant 1 to 3 in. high; stamens about 10; fol- 

 licles stipitate. — Mountains of Northern California (Mendocino Co. and 

 northward.) 



3. AQUILEGIA L. 



Perennial herbs with ternately compound chiefly radical leaves, petiolulate 

 leaflets and showy solitary flowers. Sepals 5, plane, colored like the petals. 

 Petals 5, all alike and produced backward into large hollow spurs project- 

 ing below the calyx. Stamens numerous, some inner ones sterile with dilated 

 filaments, appearing like scarious scales. Pistils 5, becoming several-seeded 

 follicles. (Derivation doubtful, said by some to be from the Latin aquila, an 

 eagle, on account of the claw-like spurs.) 



Throat of petal spurs about 2 lines in diameter 1. A. truncata. 



Throat of petal spurs about 4 lines in diameter 2. A. tracyi. 



1. A. truncata F. & M. Columbine. Erect, branching, glabrous 2 to 3% 

 ft. high; leaves biternate, the leaflets roundish in outline, broadly cuneate at 

 base, at summit incised, the segments lobed or crenately toothed; petioles long, 

 those of the radical leaves 1 ft. long; flowers scarlet, tinged with yellow, pendu- 

 lous in anthesis; spurs, therefore, erect, % in. long, somewhat exceeding in 

 length the widely spreading sepals, and truncate at the orifice, the blade almost 

 none; follicles nearly 1 in. long, conspicuously veined, the long styles per- 

 sistent. 



Moist shaded places in the lower hills, or at middle altitudes in the moun- 

 tains, almost throughout California. Not known in the inner Coast Range. 

 May-June. 



2. A. tracyi Jepson, n. nom. Similar to preceding; viscid throughout; 



