316 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



3. Upper sepal expanded into a helmet-shaped hood 6. Aconitum. 



2. Flowers regular (4). 



4. Petals with a relatively small erect limb, produced below into a long 



tapering hollow spur, this clavate-thickened at the end. 



4. Aquilegia. 

 4. Petals not spurred, very small or none (5). 



5. Flowers solitary or in very few-flowered cymes; sepals 4 to 10, showy, 

 flat, somewhat persistent; plant subacaulescent; leaves simple, with 



broad cordate blades 1. Caltha. 



5. Flowers numerous or many, in simple or few-branched racemes; sepals 

 3 to 5, not showy, somewhat cucullate, deciduous at anthesis; 

 plants caulescent; leaves large, decompound (6). 

 6. Fruit berrylike, commonly red when ripe; raceme short- _ 2. Actaea. 

 6. Fruit of 1 to 3 dry, thin-walled follicles; raceme elongate. 



3. Cimiciftjga. 

 1. Carpels with a solitar3 T ovule, in fruit achenes (7). 



7. Petals present (except sometimes in Myosurus) ; leaves commonly alternate, 



or all basal ; flowers perfect (8) . 



8. Sepals spurred at base, the spur usually elongate, scarious; petals very 



small or none; receptacle becoming greatly elongate; head of fruit 



slender-cylindric ; plants scapose 9. Myosurus. 



8. Sepals not spurred; petals always present, showy; receptacle not becoming 



greatly elongate; head of fruit conic, ovoid, or hemispheric; stems 



commonly leafy 11. Ranunculus. 



7. Petals none (9). 



9. Sepals large and showy, petallike, somewhat persistent (10). 



10. Sepals 5 or more; head of achenes ovoid to cylindric, woolly, the achenes 

 without long tails 7. Anemone. 



10. Sepals commonly 4; head of achenes globose, the achenes with long 



plumose tails 8. Clematis. 



9. Sepals small, less conspicuous than the stamens, caducous (11). 



11. Leaves simple, palmately lobed or parted; outer filaments flat, some- 



what petaloid; anthers oval or ovate, about 1 mm. long. 



10. Trautvetteria. 



11. Leaves decompound; "filaments all filiform; anthers narrowly linear, 



much more than 1 mm. long 12. Thalictrum. 



1. CALTHA. Marshmarigold 



Plant perennial, herbaceous, glabrous; leaves simple, mostly basal, 

 with broad cordate blades; flowers regular, rather showy, the perianth 

 segments all alike, petallike, purplish outside, white within; stamens 

 numerous; pistils several, becoming several-seeded follicles in fruit. 



1. Caltha leptosepala DC, Regni Veg. Syst. 1: 310. 1818. 



Apache, Coconino, and Graham Counties, 9,000 to 9,500 feet, wet 

 meadows, June to September. Montana to Alaska, south to New 

 Mexico, Arizona, and Washington. 



Known as "elkslip" in New Mexico. 



2. ACTAEA. Baneberry 



Plant herbaceous, perennial; leaves few, very large, the lower long- 

 stalked, ternately compound, with large serrate-dentate leaflets; 

 flowers in short, simple, terminal racemes, with 3 to 5 fugacious, 

 petallike sepals, and 4 to 10 small petals, these less conspicuous than 

 the numerous stamens; pistil 1 ; fruit a several-seeded berry. 



The root and berries of the European species, A. spicata (probably 

 also those of A. arguta) are poisonous, and deaths of children eating 

 the berries have been reported, 





