ranunoulace^e. (crowfoot family.) 47 



16. ZANTHORHIZA, Marshall. Shrub Yellow-root. 



Sepals 5, regular, spreading, deciduous. Petals 5, much smaller than the 

 sepals, concave and obscurely 2-lobed, raised on a claw. Stamens 5 to 10. 

 Pistils 5-15, bearing 2 pendulous ovules. Pods 1-seeded, oblong, the short 

 style becoming dorsal in its growth. — A low shrubby plant ; the bark and the 

 long roots deep yellow and bitter. Flowers polygamous, brown purple, in com- 

 pound drooping racemes, appearing, along with the 1-2-pinnate leaves, from 

 large terminal buds in early spring. (Name compounded of £av66s, yellow, and 

 pi£a, root.) 



1 . Z. apiifolia, L'Her. — Shady banks of streams, Sherburne, New York, 

 Dr. Douglass, and from the mountains of Pennsylvania southward. — Stems 

 clustered, 1° - 2° high. Leaflets cleft and toothed, — The rootstocks of this, and 

 also of the next plant, were used as a yellow dye by the aborigines. 



17. HYDRASTIS, L. Orange-root. Yellow puccoon. 



Sepals 3, petal-like, falling away when the flower opens. Petals none. Pis- 

 tils 12 or more in a head, 2-ovuled: stigma flat, 2-lipped. Ovaries becoming a 

 head of crimson 1 - 2-seeded berries in fruit. — A low perennial herb, sending 

 up in early spring, from a thick and knotted yellow rootstock, a single radical 

 leaf, and a simple hairy stem, which is 2-leaved near the summit, and terminated 

 by a single greenish-white flower. (Name perhaps from vdcop, water, and Spaco, 

 to act, alluding to the active properties of the juice.) 



1. H. Canadensis, L. — Rich woods, New York to Wisconsin and south- 

 ward : rare. — Leaves rounded, heart-shaped at the base, 5 - 7-lobed, doubly 

 serrate, veiny, when full grown in summer 4' -9' wide. 



18. ACT2EA, L. Baneberry. 



Sepals 4 or 5, falling off when the flower expands. Petals 4-10, small, flat, 

 spatulate, on slender claws. Stamens numerous, with slender white filaments. 

 Pistil single : stigma sessile, depressed, 2-lobed. Fruit a many-seeded berry. 

 Seeds smooth, flattened, and packed horizontally in 2 rows. — Perennials, with 

 ample 2 - 3-ternately compound leaves, the ovate leaflets sharply cleft and 

 toothed, and a short and thick terminal raceme of white flowers. (Name from 

 aKTr], the Elder, from some resemblance in the leaves.) j 



1. A. spieata, L., var. rubra, Michx. (Red Baneberry.) Raceme 

 orate; petals rhombic-spatulate, much shorter than the stamens; pedicels slen- 

 der; berries cherry-red, oval. (A. brachypetala, DC.)— Rich woods, common, 

 especially northward. April, May. — Plant 2° high. (Eu.) 



2. A. alba, Bigel. (White Baneberry.) Taller and rather smoother 

 than the preceding ; raceme oblong ; petals slender, mostly truncate at the end, 

 appearing to be transformed stamens ; pedicels thickened in fruit, as large as the 

 peduncle and red, the globular-oval berries white. ( A. spieata, var. alba, Michx., 

 and ed. 2. A. pachypoda, Ell.)— Rich woods, flowering a week or two later 

 than the other, and more common westward and southward. — White berries 

 rarely occur with slender pedicels, also red berries with thick pedicels : but 

 these are perhaps the result of crossing. 



