Part 23 (1/2)

1. B. Canadensis, 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. VULGaRIS, 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. CAULOPHLLUM, 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; alb.u.men h.o.r.n.y.--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 ?a????, _stem_, and f?????, _leaf_, the stem seeming to form a stalk for the great leaf.)

1. C. thalictrodes, Michx. (Also called PAPPOOSE-ROOT.) Stems 1--2 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. DIPHYLLeIA, 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 d??, _double_, and f?????, _leaf_.)

1. D. cymsa, 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. JEFFERSNIA, 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. diphlla, 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_ in some places.

5. PODOPHLLUM, L. MAY-APPLE. MANDRAKE.

Flower-bud with three green bractlets, which early fall away. Sepals 6, fugacious. Petals 6 or 9, obovate. Stamens twice as many as the petals in our species; anthers linear-oblong, not opening by uplifted valves.

Ovary ovoid; stigma sessile, large, thick and undulate. Fruit a large fleshy berry. Seeds covering the very large lateral placenta, in many rows, each seed enclosed in a pulpy aril, all forming a ma.s.s which fills the cavity of the fruit.--Perennial herbs, with creeping rootstocks and thick fibrous roots. Stems 2-leaved, 1-flowered. (Name from p???, _a foot_, and f?????, _a leaf_, probably referring to the stout petioles.)

1. P. peltatum, L. Stamens 12--18; leaves 5--9-parted, the lobes oblong, rather wedge-shaped, somewhat lobed and toothed at the apex.--Rich woods, common. May.--Flowerless stems terminated by a large round 7--9-lobed leaf, peltate in the middle like an umbrella. Flowering stems bearing two one-sided leaves, with the stalk fixed near their inner edge; the nodding white flower from the fork nearly 2' broad. Fruit ovoid, 1--2' long, ripe in July, sweet and slightly acid, edible. The leaves and roots are drastic and poisonous!--Found occasionally with from 2 to 6 carpels!

ORDER 6. NYMPHaeaCEae. (WATER-LILY FAMILY.)

_Aquatic perennial herbs, with horizontal rootstocks and peltate or sometimes only cordate leaves floating or emersed; the ovules borne on the sides or back (or when solitary hanging from the summit) of the cells, not on the ventral suture; the embryo enclosed in a little bag_ at the end of the alb.u.men next the hilum, except in Nelumbium, which has no alb.u.men. Radicle hardly any; cotyledons thick and fleshy, enclosing a well-developed plumule.--Flowers axillary, solitary. Vernation involute.

Rootstocks apparently endogenous.--The few genera differ so much in the flower and fruit that they are separated into the three following suborders.

SUBORDER I. Cabombeae. Sepals and petals each 3 or sometimes 4, hypogynous and persistent. Stamens definite (3--18). Pistils 2--18, free and distinct, coriaceous and indehiscent, 1--3-seeded on the dorsal suture.--Stems slender, leafy, coated with mucilage. Flowers small.

1. Cabomba. Stamens 3--4. Carpels 2--3. Submersed leaves capillary-multifid.

2. Brasenia. Stamens 12--18. Carpels 4--18. Leaves all peltate.

SUBORDER II. Nelumbneae. Sepals and petals numerous in several rows, pa.s.sing gradually into each other, and with the indefinitely numerous stamens hypogynous and deciduous. Pistils several, 1-ovuled, separately immersed in the obconical receptacle, which is much enlarged and broadly top-shaped at maturity, the imbedded nut-like fruits resembling small acorns. Embryo large; no alb.u.men.--Petioles and peduncles all from the tuberous rootstock, the centrally peltate leaves and the flowers large.

3. Nelumbo. Character of the Suborder.

SUBORDER III. Nymphaeaceae proper. Sepals 4--6, and petals numerous in many rows, persistent or decaying away, either hypogynous or variously adnate to the surface of the compound 8--30-celled ovary, which is formed by the union of as many carpels; the numerous ovules inserted over the whole inner face of the cells, except at the ventral suture.