RANUNCULACE^E CROWFOOT FAMILY 



Ranunculus acris, L. 



Yellow Tall Buttercup, Butter-daisy, 



Tall Crowfoot, Goldcup, 



May-August Meadow Buttercup, Ringcup, 



Meadow Crowfoot, Horse-gold, 



Gold-knaps, Bachelor Buttons, 



Butter-rose, Blister-plant, 



Butter-cresses, Blister-flower. 



Ranunculus: Latin diminutive for a little frog, applied by 

 Pliny to these plants, because the water forms grow 

 where frogs abound. 



Acris: Latin for bitter, the juice being so acrid as to draw 

 blisters when applied to the skin. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: damp ground. 



THE PLANT: from a fibrous root, erect, eighteen inches to 

 three feet high; the flowering stem erect, branched above, 

 hairy or sometimes practically hairless, dark green. 



THE LEAVES: some, tufted at the base, three to seven 

 divided, the divisions cleft into numerous narrow lobes, 

 stemless, mainly acute; upper leaves merely three-parted, 

 short petioled. 



THE FLOWERS : numerous, about one inch broad, the corolla 

 slightly cup-shaped; the five petals two or three times the 

 length of the five sepals; sepals acute; stamens clustered 

 and prominent. 



THE FRUIT: achenes. 



This Buttercup of the fields and meadows has three to 

 seven slashed, dark green leaves (the divisions being stem- 

 less), which are further cut and slashed very decoratively, 

 "only the upper ones showing the simple, three-parted 



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