38 



RANUNCULACE.E. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



toothed; radical leaves 5-7-parted or cleft; sepals 5, obovate, white (6" -9" 

 long) ; head of fruit spherical; the carpels flat, orbicular. — W. New England 

 to Illinois and northwestward. June- Aug. 



8. A. nemordsa, L. (Wind-flower. Wood A.) Low, smoothish; 

 stem perfectly simple, from a filiform rootstock, slender, leafless, except the in- 

 volucre of 3 long-petiokd trifoliolate leaves, their leaflets wedge-shaped or oblong, 

 and toothed or cut, or the lateral ones (var. quinquefolia) 2-parted; a simi- 

 lar radical leaf in sterile plants solitary from the rootstock ; peduncle not longer 

 than the involucre : sepals 4-7, oval, white, sometimes tinged with purple out- 

 side; carpels only 15-20, oblong, with a hooked beak. — Margin of woods. 

 April, May. — A delicate vernal species; the flower 1' broad. (Eu.) 



3. HEPATICA, Dill. Liver-leaf. Hepatica. 



Involucre simple and 3-leaved, very close to the flower, so as to resemble a 

 calyx; otherwise as in Anemone (of which this genus should strictly be viewed 

 as only a section). — Leaves all radical, heart-shaped and 3-lobed, thickish and 

 persistent through the winter, the new ones appearing later than the flowers, 

 which are single, on hairy scapes. "(Name from a fancied resemblance to the 

 liver in the shape of the leaves.) 



1. H. triloba, Chaix. (Round-lobed Hepatica.) Leaves with 3 ovate 

 obtuse or rounded lobes ; those of the involucre also obtuse. — Woods ; common 

 eastward ; flowering soon after the snow leaves the ground in spring. Sepals 

 6-9, blue, purplish, or nearly white. Achenia several, in a small loose head, 

 ovate-oblong, pointed, hairy. (Eu.) 



2. H. aeutiloba, DC. (Sharp-lobed Hepatica.) Leaves with 3 ovate 

 and pointed lobes, or sometimes 5-lobed ; those of the involucre acute or acut- 

 ish. — Woods, Vermont and New York to Wisconsin. Sepals 7-12, pale pur- 

 ple, pink, or nearly white. Perhaps runs into the other. 



4. THALlCTETJM, Tourn. Meadow-Rue. 



Sepals 4 or more, petal-like or greenish. Petals none. Achenia 4-15, 

 grooved or ribbed, or else inflated. Seed suspended. — Perennials, with 2-3- 

 ternately compound leaves, the divisions and the leaflets stalked. Plowers in 

 corymbs or panicles, often polygamous or dioecious. (Derivation obscure.) 

 § 1. SYNDESMON, Hoffm. Between Thalictrum and Anemone, having all 

 its stem-leaves in the form of an involucre at the top, and the stamens shorter than 

 the 5-10 white and conspicuous sepals; but the stigma depressed-truncate, and 

 the ovoid sessile carpels terete, many-angled, with deep intermediate grooves: flow- 

 ers perfect. 



1. T. anemonoides, Miehx. (Rue- Anemone.) Glabrous; stem and 

 blender petiole of radical leaf (a span high) rising from a cluster of thickened 

 tuberous roots ; the latter 2 - 3-ternately compound ; leaflets roundish, somewhat 

 3-lobed at the end, cordate at the base, long-petiolulate, those of the 2 - 3-leaved 

 1 - 2-ternate involucre similar ; flowers several in an umbel ; sepals oval (jr ; long, 

 rarely pinkish) not early deciduous. — Woods, common, flowering in eaily 



