DICENTRA, a genus of perennial herbs of the fumitory family (Fumariaceae), containing 15 species, natives of Asia and North America, 8 of which occur in the United States and Canada. They are mostly low or stemless plants, a few of which are culti vated for their attractive deeply cut or dissected foliage and hand some irregular flowers. The familiar bleeding-heart (D. spec tabilis) of the gardens, with showy rose-red, heart-shaped flowers, an inch or more long, is a native of Japan. The eastern bleeding heart (D. eximia), with pink, narrow, heart-shaped flowers, about in. long, of the Allegheny Mountain region, and the western bleeding-heart (D. formosa), with similar rose-purple flowers, of mountain woods from California to British Columbia, are both more or less cultivated. Other noteworthy American species are the Dutchman's breeches (D. cucullaria), one of the most attrac tive wild flowers of eastern North America; the squirrel-corn (D. canadensis), of similar range, the small tubers of which resemble grains of Indian corn (maize) ; and the golden ear-drops (D. chrysantha), a smooth, stiff-stemmed plant, 2 ft. to 5 ft. high, with large panicled clusters of yellow flowers, widely distributed in California. (See DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES.)