16 



I. RANUNCULACEiE, (Hook. f. & Thoms.) [Ranunculus, 



7. RAirUNCUXiUS, Linn. 



Sepak 



Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves entire lobed or dissected. 

 membranous or 0. Flowers usually panicled, white or yellow, 

 3-5, caducous, imbricate in bud. Petals usually 5, rarely 0, often glandular 

 near the base. Stamens many. Cm^pels many ; styles short ; ovule 1 ascend- 



Frtiit a head or spike of beaked or apiculate achenes. — Distrib. 



mff. 



All temperate and cold regions ; species about 160. 



Sect. I. Batrachlum. Water plants. Flowers white. Achenes trs^ns- 

 Tersely wrinkled, sometimes obscurely. * . 



1. R. aquatills, Z. ; var, trichovhyllus ; leaves all submerged capil- 

 laceo-multitid, stipules ^-adnate, auricles large, flowers small, stamens few. 

 R. aquatilis, Don in lioyle IlL 54 ) R.f, & T. FL Ind. 29. 



Plains 



East and West Tjbet. 



-Distrib, Temperate N. and 



West Himalaya, from Kumaon to the Indus. 

 of the Punjab, as far south as Delhi and Saharuiipore.- 

 S. hemispheres. 



The Indian forms have been identified bj Mr, Baker with trichophyllus, and its 

 subvarieties 2)roi*tii7 and j3a«fo^/triX. Large flowered specimens from llaule in libet 

 differ from true aquatilis chiefly in the absence of floating leaves. A small greener ter- 

 restrial variety grows in the Punjab, lloating leaves are invariably absent in the 

 Indian plant. 



Sect. II. CeratoceplialuSy Mcench (genus). Annual herbs. Floivers 

 yellow. AcJienes gibbous at the sides, with a long terminal beak, 



2, R. falcatuSy L. ; leaves 3-fid or pinnatifid, scapes longer than the 



leaves 1-flowered. Ceratocephalus falcatus, Pers. ; U.f. & T, Fl. Ind. 28. 

 C. orthoceras, DC; Deless. Ic. sel i. t 23. Anemone cynosurus, Gnf- 

 Ic. PI iv. t. 660, f. 1. 



Temperate Himalaya, from Kishtwar westwards. Punjab, dry grassy places at 



Pebhawur, Stewart. — Distuib. S. E. Europe anu W. Asia. 



Glabrous or a little woolly. Leaves all radical, segments narrow -linear, entire or 

 3-fid; petiole margined, tapering downwards. Scapes 1 or more, 1-3 in., longer than 

 the leaves. Flowerg small. Stamens 5-15. Achenes with the beak straight or curved- 

 — A very variable Utile plant, of which 7 or 8 species have been made ; Boissier re- 

 duces them to 2, a hooked and straight beaked, having never seen immeJiates, of 

 which we have seen many. 



^ Sect. III. Becatonia, DC. Perennial, rarely annual Flowers yellow 

 (in the ludian species). Achenes smooth or granular, not muricated or 

 tubercled, shortly beaked, 



* Radical or all the leaves undivided (except sometimes in 7, pulchellus)* 



3. K. Ziing-ua, L. ; tall, erect, glabrous, leaves lanceolate, flowers large, 

 petals 6. DC Prodr. I 32 ; IL f. & T. Fl Ind. 30, . 



West Himalaya; Kashmir Lake, Jacfpitmont^ &c. — Distrib. Temperate N* 

 hemisphere. , 



jRootstock creeping. Stem 2-3 ft., hollow. Leaves 4-8 in., sessile, J-amplexicaul, 

 entire or remotely toothed, veiaa parallel, venules reticulate. Flowers subpanicled. 

 jicAene^ pitted ; beak broad, flat. 



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4. a. renifopmis, Wall. Cat 4709: erect, '«te'm softly hairy, lea 

 Hroaclly oval or orbicular coarsely toothed, petals 12-16, '-^F. ik A. Frodr 

 Wiaht III. i. t. 2 : Ic. t 76 ; H. f. & T. Fl. Ind. 30 - 



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