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. triloba, 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. acutiloba, DC. Leaves with 3 ovate and pointed lobes, or sometimes 5-lobed; those of the involucre acute or acutish.--Pa.s.ses into the other and has the same range.

4. ANEMONeLLA, s.p.a.ch.

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. thalictrodes, s.p.a.ch. (RUE-ANEMONE.) Stem and slender petiole of radical leaf (a span high) rising from a cl.u.s.ter 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 (' 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. THALiCTRUM, 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 dicious.

(Derivation obscure.)

[*] _Flowers dicious 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. diic.u.m, 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, dicious; the yellowish anthers linear, mucronate, drooping on fine capillary filaments.--Rocky woods, etc.; common. April, May.

2. T. polgamum, 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 p.u.b.erulent 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. purpurascens, 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, dicious; 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. clavatum, 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. TRAUTVETTeRIA, 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. palmata, 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. ADNIS, 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. (?d????, a favorite of Venus, after his death changed into a flower.)

A. AUTUMNaLIS, L. A low leafy annual, with scarlet or crimson flowers, darker in the centre.--Sparingly naturalized from Europe.

8. MYOSuRUS, 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 ??, _a mouse_, and ????, _a tail_), the seed suspended.--Little annuals, with tufted narrowly linear-spatulate root-leaves, and naked 1-flowered scapes.

Flowers small, greenish.

1. M. minimus, L. Fruiting spike 1--2' long; achenes quadrate, blunt.--Alluvial ground, Ill. and Ky., thence south and west. (Eu.)

9. RANuNCULUS, Tourn. CROWFOOT. b.u.t.tERCUP.

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. FICaRIA, 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. BATRaCHIUM. _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. circinatus, Sibth. (STIFF WATER-CROWFOOT.) _Leaves_ all under water and _sessile_, with broad conspicuous stipules, the divisions and subdivisions short, spreading in one roundish plane, _rigid, not collapsing when withdrawn from the water_. (R. divaricatus, _Man._, not _Schrank_.)--Ponds and slow streams, Maine and Vt., to Iowa, north and westward, much rarer than the next. June--Aug. (Eu.)

2. R. aquatilis, L., var. trichophllus, Gray. (COMMON WHITE WATER-CROWFOOT.) _Leaves_ all under water and mostly _petioled_, their capillary divisions and subdivisions _rather long and soft, usually collapsing more or less when withdrawn from the water_; petiole rather narrowly dilated.--Common, especially in slow-flowing waters, the eastern form with more soft and flaccid leaves. June--Aug. (Eu.)

Var. caespitsus, DC. A dwarf terrestrial form, rooting at the nodes, the small leaves somewhat fleshy, with broader rigid divisions.--S. Ill.

(_Schneck_), and westward.

[*][*] _Receptacle glabrous; no submersed leaves._

R. HEDERaCEUS, L. Rooting freely in shallow water; leaves all reniform, angulate-lobed.--Fresh-water marshes at Norfolk, Va. (Nat. from Eu.)

-- 2. HALDES. _Petals yellow, with nectariferous pit and scale; carpels thin-walled, striate, in an oblong head; scapose, spreading by runners._

3. R. Cymbalaria, Pursh. (SEA-SIDE CROWFOOT.) Glabrous; scapes 1--6'

high, 1--7-flowered; leaves cl.u.s.tered at the root and on the joints of the long rooting runners, roundish-heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, crenate, rather fleshy, long-petioled; petals 5--8.--Sandy sh.o.r.es, from New Jersey northward, and along the Great Lakes to Ill., Kan. and westward; also at salt springs. June--Aug.

-- 3. RANUNCULUS proper. _Petals with a little scale at the base, yellow; achenes nerveless._

[*] _Achenes smooth; mostly perennial._

[+] _Aquatic; immersed leaves filiformly dissected, as in_ -- Batrachium.

4. R. multifidus, Pursh. (YELLOW WATER-CROWFOOT.) Stems floating or immersed, with the leaves all repeatedly 3-forked into long filiform divisions, or sometimes creeping in the mud (perennial by rooting from the nodes, if at all); emersed leaves with shorter and linear or wedge-shaped divisions, or else kidney-shaped and sparingly lobed or toothed; petals 5--8, deep bright yellow, 4--6" long, much larger than the calyx; carpels in a round head, pointed with a straight beak.--E.

New Eng. to S. Penn., Mo., and northward. May--July.--Out of water it is often p.u.b.escent, especially in

Var. terrestris, Gray. Stem rooting in the mud or ascending from the base; leaves all smaller, coa.r.s.ely dissected, round-reniform in outline; flowers and fruit twice or thrice smaller.--N. Ohio to N. Ill., Minn., and westward.

[+][+] _Terrestrial but growinq in very wet places, glabrous or nearly so; leaves entire or barely toothed, all or else all but the lowest lanceolate or linear; carpels forming a globular head._ (SPEARWORT.)

5. R. ambigens, Watson. (WATER PLANTAIN SPEARWORT.) Stems ascending (1--2 high), often rooting from the lower joints; leaves lanceolate or the lowest oblong, mostly denticulate (3--5' long), contracted into a margined half-clasping petiole; petals 5--7, bright yellow, oblong (2--3" long); _carpels flattened, large_ (1" long), _pointed with a long narrow-subulate beak_. (R. alismaefolius, _Man._, not _Gey._)--N.

Eng. to Ont., Minn. and southward; common, especially at the north.

June--Aug.