3. Calycocarpum. Stamens in the sterile flowers 12; in the fertile flowers 6, abortive.
1. CÓCCULUS, DC.
Sepals, petals, and stamens 6, alternating in threes, the two latter short. Anthers 4-celled. Pistils 3–6 in the fertile flowers; style pointed. Drupe and seed as in Menispermum.—Flowers in axillary racemes or panicles. (An old name, a diminutive of coccus, κόκκος, a berry.)
1. C. Carolìnus, DC. Minutely pubescent; leaves downy beneath, ovate or cordate, entire or sinuately or hastately lobed, variable in shape; flowers greenish, the petals in the sterile ones auriculate-inflexed below around the filaments; drupe red (as large as a small pea).—River-banks, Va. to S. Ill., Kan., and southward. July, Aug.
2. MENISPÉRMUM, L. Moonseed.
Sepals 4–8. Petals 6–8, short. Stamens 12–24 in the sterile flowers, as long as the sepals; anthers 4-celled. Pistils 2–4 in the fertile flowers, raised on a short common receptacle; stigma broad and flat. Drupe globular, the mark of the stigma near the base, the ovary in its growth after flowering being strongly incurved, so that the (wrinkled and grooved) laterally flattened stone takes the form of a large crescent or ring. The slender embryo therefore is horseshoe-shaped; cotyledons filiform.—Flowers white, in small and loose axillary panicles. (Name from μήνη, moon, and σπέρμα, seed.)
1. M. Canadénse, L. Leaves peltate near the edge, 3–7-angled or lobed.—Banks of streams; common. June, July.—Drupes black with a bloom, ripe in September, looking like frost grapes.
3. CALYCOCÁRPUM, Nutt. Cupseed.
Sepals 6, petaloid. Petals none. Stamens 12 in the sterile flowers, short; anthers 2-celled. Pistils 3, spindle-shaped, tipped with a radiate many-cleft stigma. Drupe globular; the thin crustaceous putamen hollowed out like a cup on one side. Embryo foliaceous, heart-shaped.—Flowers greenish-white, in long racemose panicles. (Name from κάλυξ, a cup, and καρπός, fruit.)
1. C. Lyòni, Nutt. Leaves large, thin, deeply 3–5-lobed, cordate at the base; the lobes acuminate; drupe an inch long, black when ripe; the shell crested-toothed on the edge of the cavity.—Rich soil, Ky. to S. Ill. and Kan., and southward. May.—Stems climbing to the tops of trees.
Order 5. BERBERIDÀCEÆ. (Barberry Family.)
Shrubs or herbs, with the sepals and petals both imbricated in the bud, usually in two rows of 3 (rarely 2 or 4) each; the hypogynous stamens as many as the petals and opposite to them; anthers opening by 2 valves or lids hinged at the top. (Podophyllum is an exception, and Jeffersonia as respects the sepals in one row.) Pistil single. Filaments short. Style short or none. Fruit a berry or a pod. Seeds few or several, anatropous, with albumen. Embryo small, except in Berberis. Leaves alternate, with dilated bases or stipulate.
[*] Petals and stamens 6. Fruit few-seeded.
1. Berberis. Shrubs, with yellow flowers and wood; a pair of glandular spots on the base of each petal. Fruit a berry.
2. Caulophyllum. Herb, with greenish flowers; petals thick, much shorter than the sepals. Ovary soon bursting; the two seeds left naked.
3. Diphylleia. Herb with white flowers; petals much longer than the sepals. Berry 2–4-seeded.
[*][*] Petals 6–9. Stamens 8–18. Fruit many-seeded. Herbs.
4. Jeffersonia. Petals and stamens usually 8; anthers opening by uplifted valves. Pod opening by a lid.
5. Podophyllum. Petals 6–9. Stamens 12–18; anthers not opening by uplifted valves. Fruit a large berry.
1. BÉRBERIS, L. Barberry.
Sepals 6, roundish, with 2–6 bractlets outside. Petals 6, obovate, concave, with two glandular spots inside above the short claw. Stamens 6. Stigma circular, depressed. Fruit a 1–few-seeded berry. Seeds erect, with a crustaceous integument.—Shrubs, with yellow wood and inner bark, yellow flowers in drooping racemes, sour berries, and 1–9-foliolate leaves. Stamens irritable. (Derived from Berbêrys, the Arabic name of the fruit.)
1. B. Canadénsis, Pursh. (American Barberry.) Leaves repandly toothed, the teeth less bristly-pointed; racemes few-flowered; petals notched at the apex; berries oval; otherwise as in the next.—Alleghanies of Va. and southward; not in Canada. June.—Shrub 1–3° high.
B. vulgàris, L. (Common Barberry.) Leaves scattered on the fresh shoots of the season, mostly reduced to sharp triple or branched spines, from the axils of which the next season proceed rosettes or fascicles of obovate-oblong closely bristly-toothed leaves (the short petiole jointed!), and drooping many-flowered racemes; petals entire; berries oblong, scarlet.—Thickets and waste grounds in E. New Eng., where it has become thoroughly wild; elsewhere occasionally spontaneous. May, June. (Nat. from Eu.)
2. CAULOPHÝLLUM, Michx. Blue Cohosh.
Sepals 6, with 3 or 4 small bractlets at the base, ovate-oblong. Petals 6 thick and gland-like somewhat kidney-shaped or hooded bodies, with short claws, much smaller than the sepals, one at the base of each of them. Stamens 6; anthers oblong. Pistil gibbous; style short; stigma minute and unilateral; ovary bursting soon after flowering by the pressure of the 2 erect, enlarging seeds, and withering away; the spherical seeds naked on their thick seed-stalks, looking like drupes, the fleshy integument turning blue; albumen horny.—A perennial glabrous herb, with matted knotty rootstocks, sending up in early spring a simple and naked stem, terminated by a small raceme or panicle of yellowish-green flowers, and a little below bearing a large triternately compound sessile leaf (whence the name, from καυλός, stem, and φύλλον, leaf, the stem seeming to form a stalk for the great leaf.)
1. C. thalictroìdes, Michx. (Also called Pappoose-root.) Stems 1–2½° high; leaflets obovate wedge-form, 2–3-lobed, a smaller biternate leaf often at the base of the panicle; flowers appearing while the leaf is yet small.—Deep rich woods; common westward. April, May.—Whole plant glaucous when young, as also the seeds, which are as large as peas.
3. DIPHYLLÈIA, Michx. Umbrella-leaf.
Sepals 6, fugacious. Petals 6, oval, flat, larger than the sepals. Stamens 6; anthers oblong. Ovary oblong; style hardly any; stigma depressed. Ovules 5 or 6, attached to one side of the cell below the middle. Berry globose, few-seeded. Seeds oblong, with no aril.—A perennial glabrous herb, with thick horizontal rootstocks, sending up each year either a huge centrally peltate and cut-lobed, rounded, umbrella-like radical leaf, on a stout stalk, or a flowering stem bearing two similar (but smaller and more 2-cleft) alternate leaves which are peltate near one margin, and terminated by a cyme of white flowers. (Name composed of δίς, double, and φύλλον, leaf.)
1. D. cymòsa, Michx. Root-leaves 1–2° in diameter, 2-cleft, each division 5–7-lobed; lobes toothed; berries blue.—Wet or springy places, mountains of Va. and southward. May.
4. JEFFERSÒNIA, Barton. Twin-leaf.
Sepals 4, fugacious. Petals 8, oblong, flat. Stamens 8, anthers oblong-linear, on slender filaments. Ovary ovoid, soon gibbous, pointed, stigma 2-lobed. Pod pear-shaped, opening half-way round horizontally, the upper part making a lid. Seeds many in several rows on the lateral placenta, with a fleshy lacerate aril on one side.—A perennial glabrous herb, with matted fibrous roots, long-petioled root-leaves, parted into 2 half-ovate leaflets, and simple naked 1-flowered scapes. (Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson.)
1. J. diphýlla, Pers. Low; flower white, 1´ broad, the parts rarely in threes or fives.—Woods, western N. Y. to Wisc. and southward. April, May.—Called Rheumatism-root