The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. Asa Gray
Sepals 4, or rarely more, colored, the valvate margins turned inward in the bud. Petals none or small. Achenes numerous in a head, bearing the persistent styles as naked, hairy, or plumose tails.—Perennial herbs or vines, mostly a little woody, and climbing by the bending or clasping of the leaf-stalks, rarely low and erect. Leaves opposite. (Κληματίς, a name of Dioscorides for a climbing plant with long and lithe branches.)
§ 1. FLÁMMULA. Flowers cymose-paniculate, rather small, in our species diœcious. Sepals petaloid, whitish, spreading, thin. Petals none. Anthers short, blunt.
1. C. Virginiàna, L. (Common Virgin's-Bower.) Smooth; leaves bearing 3 ovate acute leaflets, which are cut or lobed, and somewhat heart-shaped at the base; tails of the fruit plumose.—River-banks, etc., common; climbing over shrubs. July, August.
2. C. ligusticifòlia, Nutt. Very similar, but the leaves 5-foliolate or quinate-ternate.—Long Pine, Neb., and west to the Pacific.
§ 2. VIÓRNA. Flowers large, solitary on long peduncles, usually nodding. Sepals thick, erect and connivent at base, mostly dull purple. Petals none. Anthers linear.
[+] Stems climbing; leaves pinnate; calyx (and foliage) glabrous or puberulent.
3. C. Viórna, L. (Leather-Flower.) Calyx ovate and at length bell-shaped; the purplish sepals (1´ long) very thick and leathery, wholly connivent or only the tips recurved; long tails of the fruit very plumose; leaflets 3–7, ovate or oblong, sometimes slightly cordate, 2–3-lobed or entire; uppermost leaves often simple.—Rich soil, Penn. to Mo., and southward. May–Aug.
4. C. Pítcheri, Torr. & Gray. Calyx bell-shaped; the dull purplish sepals with narrow and slightly margined recurved points; tails of the fruit filiform and naked or shortly villous; leaflets 3–9, ovate or somewhat cordate, entire or 3-lobed, much reticulated; uppermost leaves often simple.—S. Ind. to Kan., and Tex. June.
5. C. críspa, L. Calyx cylindraceous below, the upper half of the bluish-purple sepals (1–2´ long) dilated and widely spreading, with broad and wavy thin margins; tails of the fruit silky or glabrate; leaflets 5–9, thin, varying from ovate or cordate to lanceolate, entire or 3–5-parted. (C. cylindrica, Sims.)—Va. near Norfolk, and southward. May–Aug.
[+][+] Low and erect, mostly simple; flowers solitary, terminal; leaves sessile or nearly so, undivided, strongly reticulated.
6. C. ochroleùca, Ait. Leaves ovate, entire or sometimes 3-lobed, silky beneath; peduncles long; tails of the fruit very plumose.—Copses, Long Island to Penn. and Ga.; rare. May.
7. C. Fremónti, Watson. Leaves crowded, thick, often coarsely toothed, sparingly villous-tomentose; peduncles very short; tails villous or glabrate, not plumose.—Mo. and Kan.
§ 3. ATRÁGENE. Some of the outer filaments enlarged and more or less petaloid; peduncles bearing single large flowers; the thin sepals widely spreading.
8. C. verticillàris, DC. Woody-stemmed climber, almost glabrous; leaves trifoliolate, with slender common and partial petioles; leaflets ovate or slightly heart-shaped, pointed, entire, or sparingly toothed or lobed; flower bluish-purple, 2–3´ across; tails of the fruit plumose.—Rocky places in mountainous districts, Maine and W. New Eng. to Va., Minn., and northwestward; rare. May.—A pair of leaves with a peduncle between them, developed in spring from each of the opposite buds, gives the appearance of a whorl, whence the specific name.
2. ANEMÒNE, Tourn. Anémone. Wind-flower.
Sepals few or many, petal-like. Petals none, or in n. 1 resembling abortive stamens. Achenes pointed or tailed, flattened, not ribbed. Seed suspended.—Perennial herbs with radical leaves; those of the stem 2 or 3 together, opposite or whorled, and forming an involucre remote from the flower; peduncles 1-flowered, solitary or umbellate. (The ancient Greek and Latin name, from ἀνεμόω, to be shaken by the wind.)
§ 1. PULSATÌLLA. Carpels numerous in a head, with long hairy styles which in fruit form feathery tails, as in Clematis; flower large, usually with some minute or indistinct gland-like abortive stamens answering to petals.
1. A. pàtens, L., var. Nuttalliàna, Gray. (Pasque-flower.) Villous with long silky hairs; peduncle solitary; flower erect, developed before the leaves, which are ternately divided, the lateral divisions 2-parted, the middle one stalked and 3-parted, the segments deeply once or twice cleft into narrowly linear and acute lobes; lobes of the sessile involucre like those of the leaves, at the base all united into a shallow cup; sepals 5–7, purplish or whitish (1–1½´ long), spreading when in full anthesis.—Prairies, Ill. and Mo., thence northward and westward. March–April.—A span high. Tail of carpels 2´ long. (Eu. Siberia.)
§ 2. ANEMÒNE proper. Styles short, not plumose. Staminodia none.
[*] Achenes densely long-woolly, compressed; involucre far below the flower.
[+] Stem single, from a small tuber; sepals 10–20; style filiform.
2. A. Caroliniàna, Walt. Stem 3–6´ high; root-leaves once or twice 3-parted or cleft; involucre 3-parted, its wedge-shaped divisions 3-cleft; sepals 10–20, oblong-linear, purple or whitish; head of fruit oblong.—Ill. to Neb. and southward. May.
[+][+] Stems several; sepals 5–8; style filiform.
3. A. parviflòra, Michx. Stem 3–12´ high from a slender rootstock, 1-flowered; root-leaves 3-parted, their broadly wedge-shaped divisions crenate-incised or lobed; involucre 2–3-leaved; sepals 5 or 6, oval, white; head of fruit globular.—Lake Superior, northward and westward. May, June.
4. A. multífida, DC. Stems from a branching caudex, silky-hairy (6–12´ high); principal involucre 2–3-leaved, bearing one naked and one or two 2-leaved peduncles; leaves of the involucre short-petioled, similar to the root-leaves, twice or thrice 3-parted and cleft, their divisions linear; sepals obtuse, red, sometimes greenish-yellow or whitish; head of fruit spherical or oval.—Rocks, etc., N. E. Maine to Lake Superior, north and westward; rare. June.
[+][+][+] Taller, commonly branching above or producing two or more peduncles; involucral leaves long-petioled; sepals 5–8, silky or downy beneath (4–6´´ long), oval or oblong; style subulate.
5. A. cylíndrica, Gray. (Long-fruited A.) Slender (2° high), silky-pubescent; flowers 2–6, on very long upright naked peduncles; involucral leaves twice or thrice as many as the peduncles, 3-divided; their divisions wedge-lanceolate, the lateral 2-parted, the middle 3-cleft; lobes cut and toothed at the apex; sepals 5, rather obtuse, greenish-white; head of fruit cylindrical (1´ long).—Dry woods, N. Eng. to Mo., and northwestward. May.—Peduncles 7–12´ long, all from the same involucre and naked throughout, or one involucellate in the middle.
6. A. Virginiàna, L. More loosely pubescent or glabrate; involucral leaves 3, 3-parted; their divisions ovate-lanceolate, pointed, cut-serrate, the lateral 2-parted, the middle 3-cleft; peduncles elongated, the earliest naked, the others with a 2-leaved involucel at the middle, repeatedly proliferous; sepals 5, acute, greenish (in one variety white and obtuse); head of fruit oval or oblong.—Woods and meadows; common. June–August.—Plant 2–3° high; the upright peduncles 6–12´ long.
[*][*] Achenes naked, orbicular, compressed, wing-margined; sepals 5, obovate; involucre sessile.
7. A. Pennsylvánica, L. Hairy, rather low; primary involucre 3-leaved, bearing a naked peduncle, and soon a pair of branches or peduncles with a 2-leaved involucre at the middle, which branch similarly in turn; their leaves broadly wedge-shaped, 3-cleft, cut and toothed; radical leaves 5–7-parted or cleft; sepals white (6–9´´ long); head of fruit spherical.—W. New Eng. to Penn., Ill., and