A small family, widely distributed; very smooth, tender, perennial herbs, with watery juice; alternate, compound leaves, finely cut, lobed and fringed into many divisions, and irregular, perfect flowers, of peculiar shape, with two, scale-like sepals, and four petals, the inner pair narrower than the outer and united by their tips over the stamens and style. The six stamens are in two, equal sets, the filaments of each set somewhat united, the middle anther of each set with two cells, the others with only one. The superior ovary develops into a long, dry, one-celled capsule, containing shiny, black seeds. This family has been united to the Poppies by Bentham and Hooker, because the plan of the flowers is similar, though their appearance is unlike.
There are several kinds of Bicuculla, natives of North America and Asia; perennials, with beautiful foliage and decorative flowers, of the curious and intricate shape we are familiar with in old-fashioned gardens. The pedicels have two bracts; the corolla is heart-shaped at base; the outer pair of petals are oblong and concave, with spreading tips and spurred or pouched at base, the inner pair are narrow and clawed, with crests or wings on the back; the style is slender, with a two-lobed stigma, each lobe with two crests. The creeping rootstock is surrounded by a bulb-like cluster of fleshy grains. These plants are often called Dutchman's Breeches, from the shape of the flower, which, of course, also gives the pretty name Bleeding Heart. Bicuculla is from the Latin, meaning "double-hooded."
Bleeding Heart
Bicucúlla formòsa (Dicentra)
Pink
Summer
Cal., Oreg., Wash.
This is a very beautiful and interesting plant, about two feet tall, with delicate pale-green leaves, beautifully cut and lobed, all from the root, with very long leaf-stalks, and a few, graceful sprays of purplish-pink flowers, each about three-quarters of an inch long. This has a fleshy, spreading rootstock and grows in shady spots, in rich, moist woods, at moderate altitudes, but is not very common. It is found in the Yosemite Valley. B. uniflòra is a diminutive alpine plant, from one to three inches high, usually with only one white or flesh-colored flower, about half an inch long, which is often hidden among dead leaves. This grows in rich soil on mountain sides in the Wasatch and Teton Mountains and in the Sierra Nevada, and is found in the Yosemite Valley and on Mt. Lyall, at a height of ten thousand five hundred feet. This is called Squirrel Corn and Steer's Head.
Bleeding Heart—Bicuculla formosa.
Golden Eardrops
Bicucúlla chrysántha (Dicentra)
Yellow
Summer
California
The general appearance of this handsome plant is striking and Japanese in effect, and the coloring of the feathery, pale-green foliage and the golden-yellow flowers is exceedingly odd and beautiful. The large, finely-cut leaves are sometimes a foot long, and resemble delicate ferns, and the smooth, stout, rather coarse flower-stems bear a few pretty flowers, which are a soft shade of yellow, about three-quarters of an inch long, the usual Bleeding Heart shape, but not drooping, and with a strong narcotic odor, much like that of poppies. This is sometimes as much as four feet high and grows in sunny places on dry ridges in the Coast Ranges, but is nowhere common.
There are many kinds of Capnoides, natives of the north temperate zone and Africa. They have oddly-shaped flowers, something like Bleeding Heart, but with only one spur, at the back on the upper side, instead of two. The name is from the Greek, meaning "smokelike," in allusion to the odor of some kinds.