THE AAIERICAN BOTANIST 



133 



The eight to ten or more sepals are all distinct, somewhat 

 elliptical in shape and early deciduous. There are numerous 

 stamens and pistils, all distinct. These features and the inser- 

 tion of the parts on the receptacle, i. e. beneath the pistils, help 

 to identify the plant as one of the multifarious group of crow- 

 foots or plants of the buttercup family. 



As is well known, this family possesses strikingly dissim- 

 ilar members which yet possess marked characters, like those 

 mentioned above, by which one learns to know them. Thus 

 it may have both calyx and corolla or one circle of floral enve- 

 lopes, only, when it is always the calyx which is present. The 

 petals, if there are any, may be long and spurred as in the 

 columbine, or curious sacs as in goldthread or indiscribable 

 bodies, as in larkspur and monkshood. The simple pistils 

 usually free from each other are a marked feature as in our 

 liverwort, but in the peony they are more or less united. 



The name, liverwort, and its Latin equivalent, Hepatica, 

 was given to our little plant from a fancied resemblance in the 

 leaves to the form of the liver. There followed from this, by 

 the ancient doctrine of signatures, a belief that the foliage was 

 useful in complaints of that organ. I fancy it may be used, 

 even now by some persons with this idea in view. It is prob- 

 ably no longer found in any authentic pharmacopeia, but of it 

 might be said what Asa Gray said of some other plant, 'Tt is 

 probably as efficacious as many other things." 



