CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



31 



fruit matures. Pods membranaceous, spreading, pointed with tlie abort, 

 sometimes recurved styh, fesv-seeded. Low, slender, smooth perennials 

 with trifoliolate leaves, which survive the winter, and small white /oii'grs 

 borne on scapes. 



1. C. trifo'lia, Salisb. Leaves ternately divided ; leaflets wedge-obo- 

 vate, sharply toothed, obscurely 3-lobed ; scape 1-flowered. 

 Three-leayed Coptis. Goldthread. Mouth-root. 



Rhizoma horizontal, creeping ; fibres bright yellow. Leaves on long petioles, very smooth 

 ani shining ; leaflets a'oout an inch long. Scape slender but somewhat rigid and wiry, 

 3-6 inches long. Floivers about two-thirds of an inch in diameter. Sepals obtuse, white, 

 sometimes parplish miderneath. Petals much shorter than the sepals, veilow at the 

 base. 



Obs. This beautiful little evergreen is found in boggy places and in 

 damp woods from Maryland to Greenland. The long bright yellow fibres 

 of the root have caused it to receive the common name of Goldthread. 

 It is purely bitter, without any astringency, and is used in medicine as 

 a tonic, in some places it is a domestic remedy for thfe sore mouths 

 of children ; whence the name Mouth-root." That em>"»ent naturalist, 

 John Ellis, in a letter to Linxaeus, dated London, Aprn 25, 1758, 

 says : ' Mr. Colden, of Xew York, has sent Dr. Fothergill a new 

 plant, described by his daughter (Miss Jaxe Coldex). It is called 

 Fibraurea, Gold Thread. This young lady merits your esteem and does 

 honor to your system. She has drawn and described 400 plants in your 

 method only : she uses the English terms. Her father has a plant called 

 after him, Coldenia ; suppose you should call this Coldenella, or any 

 other name that might distinguish her among your genera.' Lixxaeus, 

 however, referred the plant to his genus Helleborus, and when it was 

 subsequently ascertained to be distinct, Salisbury, regardless alike of 

 gallantry and Justice, imposed on it the name of Coptis." — Memoirs of 

 Bartram and Marshall, p. 20. ^ 



6. DELPHIXTUM, L. Larkspur. 



[Greek, Delphin, a dolphin ; from a fanciful resemblance in the flower.] 



Sepals petaloid, irregular, the upper one produced into a spur at base. 

 Petals 4, irregular, the two upper ones with a spur-shaped appendage at 

 base inclosed in the spur of the calyx, sometimes united. Ovaries 1 - 

 5, mostly 3. Follicles many-seeded. Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves 

 petiolate, palmately divided. Flowers in terminal racemes. 



I. D. Consol'ida, L. Stem erect, with spreading branches ; leaves 

 many-parted, the segments linear ; flowers few, in loose racemes ; pedi- 

 cels longer than the bracts ; petals united ; pod solitary, smooth. 

 Solder Delphixiu:.i. Lark-spur. [Caballero. 

 Fr. Pied d'Alouette. Germ. Der Eittersporn. Span. Espuela de 



i2ooi annual. Stem about two feet high, and with the foliage and nowers somewhat 

 pubescent. Flowers blue or violet-purple, sometimes the petals are multiphed into double 

 flowers. 



Grain fields and waste places : introduced. Native of Europe. Fl. July. Fr. August 



