CROWFOOT FAMILY. Ranunculacex. 



White 

 June-July 



A tall spreading, slender-stemmed wood- 

 Snakeroot land plant, with fuzzy, feathery white 

 Cimidfuga flowers borne in a 6-20 inches long, wand- 

 racemosa like cluster, having a disagreeable foetid 



odor, and compound, sharply toothed, 

 light green leaves. The 4-8 petals are 

 stamenlike, and the stamens are numerous. The flower 

 is assisted in fertilization by the green flesh-flies. Fruit 

 berry like and purplish. 3-8 feet high. Woods, Me., 

 south to Ga. , and west to Minn, and Mo. 

 Red Baneberr A bushy woodland plant with compound 

 Act&a spicata ^-5 parted leaves, the leaflets toothed and 

 var. rubra lobed, the lower end-leaflets sometimes 

 White again compound. The tiny white, perfect 



April-June flowers with 4-10 exceedingly narrow pet- 

 als and numerous stamens ; the 4-5 sepals petallike and 

 falling when the flower blooms. Cross-fertilized by the 

 small bees, especially of the species Halictus. The stig- 

 mas mature before the anthers are open, thus securing 

 cross-fertilization. Fruit a thick cluster of coral red, 

 oval berries borne upon slender stems. I-?/ ?eet high. 

 Woods, from Me., southwest to N. J. and Pa., and west. 

 A similar species with the same distribu- 

 Baneberry tion. The leaflets are more deeply cut, 

 Actceaalba the teeth are sharper, and the lobes are 

 Wh "te acute. The narrow, stamenlike petals are 



June APriI blUnt at the tlp ' and 8horter than the Sta * 



mens. Fruit a china white berry with 



a conspicuous purple-black eye ; the stems are thick and 

 fleshy, and usually red. Forms with slender-stemmed 

 white berries, and fleshy-stemmed red berries occasion- 

 ally occur, but these are considered hybrids (Gray's 

 Manual, 6th edition). The Actceas are not honey flow- 

 ers and the smaller bees (Halictus) visit them for pollen. 

 A stocky yellow-rooted perennial, send- 



in S up in spring a single clear green, 

 Canadensis round, veiny root-leaf, lobed and toothed, 

 Greenish an d a hairy stem terminated by two small 



^ hite leaves, from the uppermost one of whicli 



springs an insignificant green-white 

 flower scarcely inch broad, with numerous stamens, 

 150 



