Leaves long petioled, arising with the flowering scapes directly from the fibrous roots, reniform, hairy, 2 to 2½ inches broad when mature, spreading on the ground, three-lobed (occasionally the lateral divisions again lobed), obtuse. Flowers blue, purple or white, one-half to 1 inch broad on hairy scapes 4 to 6 inches high. Each flower subtended by an involucre of three sessile, obtuse, oblong, small leaves immediately under the flowers. Sepals oval or oblong, obtuse, longer than the numerous stamens. Fruit consisting of several oblong, acute, hairy achenes.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 51

B. Round-Lobed Hepatica Or Liverleaf - Hepatica hepatica

In woods, often in large tufts. Nova Scotia to northern Florida, west to Manitoba, Iowa and Missouri. Also in Alaska, Europe and Asia. Flowering in earliest spring, with us usually early in April but sometimes in March, and even unseasonably warm spells in midwinter may find it in flower. The leaves of Hepaticahepatica in central Europe possess blunt lobes, while our form usually has perfectly rounded lobes.