8. A. nemoròsa, L. (Wind-flower. Wood A.) Low, smoothish; stem perfectly simple, from a filiform rootstock; involucre of 3 long-petioled trifoliolate leaves, their leaflets wedge-shaped or oblong, and toothed or cut, or the lateral ones (var. quinquefolia) 2-parted; a similar radical leaf in sterile plants solitary from the rootstock; peduncle not longer than the involucre; sepals 4–7, oval, white, sometimes blue, or tinged with purple outside; carpels only 15–20, oblong, with a hooked beak.—Margin of woods. April, May.–A delicate vernal species; the flower 1´ broad. (Eu.)
9. A. nudicaùlis, Gray. Glabrous, rootstock filiform; radical leaves reniform, 3-parted, the divisions broadly cuneate with rounded crenate-incised or -lobed summit; involucre of a single similar petiolate leaf or wanting; achenes glabrous, tipped with a slender-subulate hooked style.—North shore of Lake Superior near Sand Bay, Minn., in bogs. (Joseph C. Jones.) Imperfectly known.
3. HEPÁTICA, Dill. Liver-leaf. Hepatica.
Involucre simple and 3-leaved, very close to the flower, so as to resemble a calyx; otherwise as in Anemone.—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. tríloba, Chaix. Leaves with 3 ovate obtuse or rounded lobes; those of the involucre also obtuse; sepals 6–12, blue, purplish, or nearly white; achenes several, in a small loose head, ovate-oblong, pointed, hairy.—Woods; common from the Atlantic to Mo., Minn., and northward, flowering soon after the snow leaves the ground in spring. (Eu.)
2. H. acutíloba, DC. Leaves with 3 ovate and pointed lobes, or sometimes 5-lobed; those of the involucre acute or acutish.—Passes into the other and has the same range.
4. ANEMONÉLLA, Spach.
Involucre compound, at the base of an umbel of flowers. Sepals 5–10, white and conspicuous. Petals none. Achenes 4–15, ovoid, terete, strongly 8–10-ribbed, sessile. Stigma terminal, broad and depressed.—Low glabrous perennial; leaves all radical, compound.
1. A. thalictroìdes, Spach. (Rue-Anemone.) Stem and slender petiole of radical leaf (a span high) rising from a cluster of thickened tuberous roots; leaves 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 (½´ long, rarely pinkish), not early deciduous. (Thalictrum anemonoides, Michx.)—Woods, common, flowering in early spring with Anemone nemorosa, and considerably resembling it. Rarely the sepals are 3-lobed like the leaflets.
5. THALÍCTRUM, Tourn. Meadow-Rue.
Sepals 4–5, petal-like or greenish, usually caducous. Petals none. Achenes 4–15, grooved or ribbed, or else inflated. Stigma unilateral. Seed suspended.—Perennials, with alternate 2–3-ternately compound leaves, the divisions and the leaflets stalked; petioles dilated at base. Flowers in corymbs or panicles, often polygamous or diœcious. (Derivation obscure.)
[*] Flowers diœcious or sometimes polygamous, in ample panicles; filaments slender; stigmas elongated, linear or subulate; achenes sessile or short-stipitate, ovoid, pointed, strongly several-angled and grooved.
1. T. diòicum, L. (Early Meadow-Rue.) Smooth and pale or glaucous, 1–2° high; leaves (2–3) all with general petioles; leaflets drooping, rounded and 3–7-lobed; flowers purplish and greenish, diœcious; the yellowish anthers linear, mucronate, drooping on fine capillary filaments.—Rocky woods, etc.; common. April, May.
2. T. polýgamum, Muhl. (Tall M.) Smooth, not glandular, 4–8° high; stem-leaves sessile; leaflets rather firm, roundish to oblong, commonly with mucronate lobes or tips, sometimes puberulent beneath; panicles very compound; flowers white, the fertile ones with some stamens; anthers not drooping, small, oblong, blunt, the mostly white filaments decidedly thickened upwards. (T. Cornuti, Man., not L.)—Wet meadows and along rivulets, N. Eng. to Ohio and southward; common. July–Sept.
3. T. purpuráscens, L. (Purplish M.) Stem (2–4° high) usually purplish; stem-leaves sessile or nearly so; leaflets more veiny and reticulated beneath, with or without gland-tipped or glandless hairs or waxy atoms; panicles compound; flowers (sepals, filaments, etc.) greenish and purplish, diœcious; anthers linear or oblong-linear, mucronulate, drooping on capillary filaments occasionally broadened at the summit.—Dry uplands and rocky hills, S. New Eng. to Minn., and southward. May, June.
[*][*] Flowers all perfect, corymbed; the filaments strongly club-shaped or inflated under the small and short anther; stigma short; achenes gibbous, long-stipitate.
4. T. clavàtum, DC. Size and appearance of n. 1; leaves only twice ternate; flowers white, fewer; achenes 5–10, flat, somewhat crescent-shaped, tapering into the slender stipe.—Mountains of Va. and southward. June.
6. TRAUTVETTÈRIA, Fisch. & Mey. False Bugbane.
Sepals 3–5, usually 4, concave, petal-like, very caducous. Petals none. Achenes numerous, capitate, membranaceous, compressed-4-angled and inflated. Seed erect.—A perennial herb, with alternate palmately-lobed leaves, and corymbose white flowers. (For Prof. Trautvetter, a Russian botanist.)
1. T. palmàta, Fisch. & Mey. Stems 2–3° high; root-leaves large, 5–11-lobed, the lobes toothed and cut.—Moist ground along streamlets, Md. to S. Ind., and south to Ga.
7. ADÒNIS, Dill.
Sepals and petals (5–16) flat, unappendaged, deciduous. Achenes numerous, in a head, rugose-reticulated. Seed suspended.—Herbs with finely dissected alternate leaves and showy flowers. (Ἄδωνις, a favorite of Venus, after his death changed into a flower.)
A. autumnàlis, L. A low leafy annual, with scarlet or crimson flowers, darker in the centre.—Sparingly naturalized from Europe.
8. MYOSÙRUS, Dill. Mouse-tail.
Sepals 5, spurred at the base. Petals 5, small and narrow, raised on a slender claw, at the summit of which is a nectariferous hollow. Stamens 5–20. Achenes numerous, somewhat 3-sided, crowded on a very long and slender spike-like receptacle (whence the name, from μῦς, a mouse, and οὐρά, a tail), the seed suspended.—Little annuals, with tufted narrowly linear-spatulate root-leaves, and naked 1-flowered scapes. Flowers small, greenish.
1. M. mínimus, L. Fruiting spike 1–2´ long; achenes quadrate, blunt.—Alluvial ground, Ill. and Ky., thence south and west. (Eu.)
9. RANÚNCULUS, Tourn. Crowfoot. Buttercup.
Sepals 5. Petals 5, flat, with a little pit or scale at the base inside. Achenes numerous, in a head, mostly flattened, pointed; the seed erect.—Annuals or perennials; stem-leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or somewhat corymbed, yellow, rarely white. (Sepals and petals rarely only 3, the latter often more than 5. Stamens occasionally few.)—(A Latin name for a little frog; applied by Pliny to these plants, the aquatic species growing where frogs abound.)
R. Ficària, L. (representing the § Ficaria), which has tuberous-thickened roots, Caltha-like leaves, and scape-like peduncles bearing a 3-sepalous and 8–9-petalous yellow flower, has been found as an escape from gardens about New York and Philadelphia.
§ 1. BATRÁCHIUM. Petals with a spot or naked pit at base, white, or only the claw yellow; achenes marginless, transversely wrinkled; aquatic or subaquatic perennials, with the immersed foliage repeatedly dissected (mostly by threes) into capillary divisions; peduncles 1-flowered, opposite the leaves.
[*] Receptacle hairy.
1. R. circinàtus, Sibth. (Stiff Water-Crowfoot.)