CROWFOOT FAMILY. Ranunculaceae. 



the stigma so small that an entering insect must touch 

 the stigma. On the following day the flower expands 

 fully and the anthers beneath the stigma unfold, spread 

 outward, and expose their pollen. Cross-fertilization is 

 thus insured, and is generally effected by means of the 

 bees of the genus Halictus, and (so says Prof. Robertson) 

 the beetle named Donacia piscatrix. A very common 

 and familiar plant in stagnant water, with stouter stem 

 and coarser leaves than those of the preceding species. 

 Var. minus is a slenderer form the smaller flower of 

 which has a crimson stigma. Northern Vt. to Mich. 

 and Penn. 



This is a very slender species, with flow- 

 Small Yellow era scarcely j inch wide . Sepals only 

 l^uhar y three. The stigma disc, dark red. In 

 Kalmianum ponds and sluggish streams, Me. to south- 

 Golden yellow ern N. Y., Penn., and west to Minn. 

 June 

 September 



CROWFOOT FAMILY. Rammculacece. 



A large family of perennial or annual herbs, with gen- 

 erally regular but sometimes irregular flowers ; with 

 stamens and pistil, or with staminate and pistillate flow- 

 ers on different plants ; 3-15 petals, or none at all ; in the 

 last case the sepals petallike and colored. Generally fer- 

 tilized by the smaller bees, butterflies, and the beelike 

 flies. 



A most beautiful trailing vine commonly 



found draped over the bushes in copses 



CtoHo'to and ^ moist roadsides - The leaves dark 



Virginiana green, veiny, with three coarsely toothed 



Greenish leaflets ; the flat clusters of small flowers 



Wnite with four greenish white sepals and no 



July-August ' , . ... 



petals, polygamously staminate and pistil- 

 late on different plants ; cross-fertilized by bees, the bee- 

 like flies (Bombylius), and the beautiful and brilliantl}' 

 colored flies of the tribe Syrphidce. In October the 

 flowers are succeeded by the gray plumy clusters of the 

 withered styles (still adherent to the seed-vessels), which 

 128 



