LIZARD-TAIL FAMILY. Saururaceae. 
Ww 
LIZARD-TAIL. Saururaceae. 
A small family; ours are perennial astringent herbs, with 
alternate, toothless leaves, with leaf-stalks; flowers perfect, 
with bracts, in a dense, terminal spike, without calyx or 
corolla; stamens generally three or six; ovary with one to 
five stigmas; fruit a capsule or berry. 
There are two kinds of Anemopsis. 
This plant bears several, large, cream- 
Yerba M . ; 
erba Mansa white flowers, which at the first glance 
Anemopsis f 
Califérnica appear to have from five to eight petals 
White and a long, projecting knob in the center, 
ae but what appears to be a corolla is in 
reality an involucre, about an inch and a 
half across, and surrounding the base of a long, conical 
spike of numerous, small, greenish flowers. These are 
half-sunk in the fleshy substance of the spike and have no 
sepals or petals, but each has a small, white bract at its 
base, so that the spike appears to be covered with scales 
symmetrically arranged. The flower has from six to eight 
stamens on the base of the ovary and from three to four- 
stigmas. The ovaries, which are superior, form small pods, 
opening at the top when ripe, so that in the end the spike 
is neatly pitted with holes. The rather thick, hollow, 
reddish stems are from six inches to two feet tall, covered 
with hair, and the smooth, light-green leaves, from two to 
ten inches long, are mostly from the root, with leaf- 
-stalks which broaden at the base and partly sheathe the 
stem. The creeping rootstocks are peppery and acrid, 
used medicinally, and considered exceedingly valuable by 
Spanish-Californians. These pretty, odd-looking plants 
grow in alkaline or salty swamps in the south. The name 
is from the Greek meaning ‘“‘anemone”’ and “‘appearance,”’ 
but the flowers do not look very much like Anemones. 
w 
80 
