An erect perennial herb, with thickened rootstocks, and ternately compound leaves. Sepals 6, oblong, the calyx 3-4-bracted. Petals 6, smaller, cucullate, opposite the sepals. Stamens 6; anthers oblong, dehiscent by valves. Pistil 1; style short; stigma lateral; ovules 2, ripening into large globose stipitate blue seeds, resembling berries, which in growth soon rupture the membranous caducous pericarp. [Greek, stem-leaf.]

Two known species; the following typical one of eastern and central North America, the other of eastern Asia.

1. Caulophyllum Thalictroides (L.) Michx. Blue Cohosh

Fig. 1958

Leontice thalictroides L. Sp. Pl. 312. 1753.

C. thalictroides Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 205. 1803.

Glabrous, glaucous when young, 1°-3° high, with 2 or 3 large sheathing bracts at the base, a large tritcrnate nearly sessile leaf near the summit, and generally a smaller similar one near the base of the inflorescence. Divisions of the leaves long-petioled, ternately or pinnately compound, the ultimate segments thin, 1'-3' long, oval, oblong or obovate, 3-5-lobed near the apex; panicle terminal, 2'-3' long; flowers greenish purple, 4"-6" broad; seeds globular, 4" in diameter, glaucous, borne on stout stalks about 3" long.

In woods, New Brunswick to South Carolina, west to Manitoba, Tennessee, Nebraska and Missouri. -Ascends to 5000 ft. in North Carolina. April-May. Blueberry. Blue-ginsing. Blueberry-, squaw- or papoose-root.