118 
account of what is no doubt the very largest of the genus, namely : 
RANUNCULUS MAXIMUS. Stems thick and fistulous, 2 to 5 
feet long, but weak and reclining: herbage more or less bristly- 
hirsute: leaves broad, alternately divided, the radical on petioles 1 
to 14 feet long, leaflets laciniately lobed ; petals five to eight, and 
10 lines long, oblong-obovate, obtuse, the nectariferous scale 
correspondingly large ; akenes compressed, but not strongly so, 
rather thick, tipped with a long, stout, erect, slightly incurved 
style, forming a globose or round-ovate head. R. macranthus, 
Brew. & Wats., Bot. Cal., i, 8, not of Scheele; R. orthorhynchus, 
var. platyphyllus, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad, «xxi; 9377;" as- to: the 
Californian plant at least. 
Were I compelled to choose between the two different dispo- 
sals of this plant which have been made by the authors above 
cited, I should take the first. It is surely every way more like 
the Mexican R. macranthus than it is like R. orthorhynchus of . 
the Columbia River region. The good fruit characters of the 
latter species, as shown in well-matured specimens from near 
Portland, Oregon, and which agree perfectly with Hooker’s 
figure, are these: a much compressed thin akene; styles rather 
slender, perfectly straight and conspicuously spreading, i. e. 
standing out in all directions at right angles with the center of 
their axis, giving a very bristling aspect to the head. In R. 
maximus they are, as I have said, not only not straight; they 
are spreading, but in a less degree, pointing in a direction more 
inclined to a parallel with the axis. The remarkable differences 
of foliage, size and habit of the two plants need not here be 
repeated. They can be learned by reference to any description 
of the original and unconfused R. orthorhynchus. 
Our most common Californian species of this genus, the one 
which makes yellow with its brilliant bloom all the running hill- 
Sides of the western parts of the State in the months of March 
and April, appears to have been passing for many years under 
_aname which, by right of priority, does not belong to it, and 
_ which should therefore be rejected from henceforth. It is 
Ranunculus Deppei, Nutt. in Torr. and Gray, Fl. N. Am. i, 
21 (under R. acris), A.D., 1838=R. Californicus, Benth. PI. 
Hartw., 295, A.D., 1857. 
