POPPY FAMILY.
PAPAVERACEÆ.
| Bloodroot. | Sanguinaria Canadensis. |
Found in April on sunny slopes and meadow-borders.
The leaf and flower rise from the root on short stems, from 3 to 6 inches high.
The large leaf (from 4 to 6 inches wide when fully grown) is rounding in shape, with a heart-shaped base, and irregularly cut into 5 or 7 lobes; the ribs are strong, the texture is close and fine—rather thick,—and the surface is smooth. The color is a cool green, silvery underneath, the short stem and the ribs being reddish. The single leaf grows from the root on a thick juicy stem.
The flower petals, usually 8, but sometimes 12 in number, spread in a square shape; they are long, narrow, and tapering at both ends (4 being slightly broader than the other 4), fine in texture, and of a brilliant white; the stamens are many, orange-yellow or golden, and the single large pale yellow pistil is grooved through the middle; the 2-parted pale greenish calyx falls as the blossom expands. The flower-stem is smooth, round, large, and pale green tinged with red.
The Bloodroot makes a wise provision against the inclement season in which it blooms, and comes up from the ground wrapped closely in its circular leaf-cloak, pushing its bud through the top to open in the sunlight. The leaf slowly unrolls itself and stands, large and broad, close to the ground,—in general effect it is suggestive of a grape leaf. The root is charged with a dark orange-red acrid juice which gives the plant its folk-name. To this plentiful rich color, no doubt, the brilliant quality of the white blossom is due.