228 Rhodora [DECEMBER 
acris?” ‘The inclosed specimen, differing from true Ranunculus acris 
in having very broad leaf segments instead of many linear segments, 
was collected at Franklin Park, Massachusetts, in late August, 1887. 
Comparison with the original descriptions, as well as specimens and 
figures, showed it to be the European A. Steveni of Andrzejowski. The 
attention of members of the New England Botanical Club was called to 
the plant, and during the past summer observations have been made by 
them and by botanical correspondents who have generously supplied 
the writer with specimens and notes from various sections of New Eng- 
land. Among others from whom much assistance has been received 
grateful mention is made of Miss M. P. Cook, who has furnished notes 
and specimens from several stations in eastern Massachusetts, Mr. C. H. 
Knowlton, who has supplied material from Franklin Co., Maine, Miss 
E. L. Shaw, who has collected forms of the plant in eastern Massachu- 
setts and on Mt. Desert Island, and Mrs. E. H. Terry, who collected at 
Jefferson, New Hampshire, a most interesting series of foliage variations, 
and who has since supplied notes from Northampton, Massachusetts. 
From the observations of these and other correspondents, and per- 
sonal studies of the writer and others in Maine and New Hampshire, 
the conclusion is drawn that the real Ranunculus acris, with the leaf-divi- 
sions cut into many linear segments, is, at least in the northern part of 
New England, much less common than the broad-leaved plant generally 
known in Europe as Æ. Stevent. During the recent session of the Al- 
stead School of Natural History the plant was carefully watched in 
western Cheshire County, New Hampshire. On the high plateau about 
Alstead Centre the broad-leaved plant is abundant, but the finely cut 
foliage of true X.acrís is rarely seen. In the region of Walpole, however, 
the latter plant appeared to be as abundant as Æ. Steven’. Though in 
the region of Alstead and in sections of Maine where the buttercups have 
been watched the two forms are usually strongly marked, and, as at Al- 
stead Centre, one of them abounds to the practical exclusion of the other, 
it is no exception to find individuals bearing both coarsely and finely cut 
foliage. Other distinctions between the two plants have been searched 
for in vain. The foliage of R. Stevení appears in the field much thicker 
and heavier than that of Æ. acris, but this is apparently due to the 
narrow leaf-divisions of the latter plant. The flowers and fruit appear 
identical in the two forms. With no other difference than this purely 
habital one, the breadth of the leaf-segments, the plants, although gener- 
ally very marked as to this point, can hardly be maintained as distinct 
