_Podophyllum peltatum_
_Flowers_--White, solitary, large, unpleasantly scented, nodding from
the fork between a pair of terminal leaves. Calyx of 6 short-lived
sepals; 6 to 9 rounded, flat petals; stamens as many as petals or
(usually) twice as many; 1 pistil, with a thick stigma. _Stem:_ 1 to
1-1/2 ft. high, from a long, running rootstock. _Leaves:_ Of flowerless
stems (from separate rootstock), solitary, on a long petiole from,
base, nearly 1 ft. across, rounded, centrally peltate, umbrella
fashion, 5 to 7 lobed, the lobes 2-cleft, dark above, light green
below. Leaves of flowering stem 1 to 3, usually a pair, similar to
others, but smaller. _Fruit:_ A fleshy, yellowish, egg-shaped,
many-seeded fruit about 2 in. long.
_Preferred Habitat_--Rich, moist woods.
_Flowering Season_--May.
_Distribution_--Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to Minnesota and
Texas.
In giving this plant its abridged scientific name, Linnaeus seemed to
see in its leaves a resemblance to a duck’s foot _(Anapodophyllum);_ but
equally imaginative American children call them green umbrellas, and
declare they unfurl only during April showers. In July, a sweetly
mawkish many-seeded fruit, resembling a yellow egg-tomato, delights the
uncritical palates of the little people, who should be warned, however,
against putting any other part of this poisonous, drastic plant in their
mouths. Physicians best know its uses. Dr. Asa Gray’s statement about
the harmless fruit “eaten by pigs and boys” aroused William Hamilton
Gibson, who had happy memories of his own youthful gorges on anything
edible that grew. “Think of it, boys!” he wrote; “and think of what else
he says of it: ‘Ovary ovoid, stigma sessile, undulate, seeds covering
the lateral placenta each enclosed in an aril.’ Now it may be safe for
pigs and billygoats to tackle such a compound as that, but we boys all
like to know what we are eating, and I cannot but feel that the public
health officials of every township should require this formula of Doctor
Gray’s to be printed on every one of these big loaded pills, if that is
what they are really made of.”