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.)