376 Supposed Generic Distinction 



Moench, in his Methodics Plant. Horti et Agri Malburgensisf, 

 gave it the name of F. ranunculoides ; a name totally inad- 

 missible, being, in the words of Sir J. E. Smith ^English 

 Flora, iii, 47.1 " ^ barbarous jumble of Latin and Greek.'*" 

 He is, however, followed in that nomenclature by Roth and 

 De Candolle, and by Biria, in his Histoire Naturelle des Re- 

 7ioncules. In this country, Lindley also has adopted the latter 

 name in Loudon's Encyc. of Plants^ but considered the plant 

 as a i?anunculus in his Synopsis of the British Flora ; and 

 Mr. George Don has done the same in his recently published 

 General System of Gardening and Botany, All other botanical 

 authors have, I believe, followed Linne in considering this 

 plant as a species of i^anunculus. 



The characters given by all the above-mentioned botanists 

 to distinguish the genera Ficaria and /Ranunculus rest wholly 

 upon the comparative numbers of the sepals and petals; 

 Ficaria having 3 sepals, and 9 petals; and ^Ranunculus, 5 

 sepals, and 5 or rarely 10 petals. 



That number is of no value in this case, any more than in 

 many, I may, perhaps, be allowed to say in all, the other 

 cases in which it alone has been employed as a generic cha- 

 racter, is, I think, clearly shown by the tables opposite, 

 drawn up from the examination of 2682 specimens of this 

 plant. It will be seen that some of the varieties which I 

 have noticed are true i^anunculi, having sepals 5, and petals 

 5 or 1 ; and that, so far from 9 being the typical number of 

 petals, 8 occurs in very many more, and 7 in nearly an equal 

 number of cases* 



I will, however, leave the reader to draw his own con- 

 clusions from the facts, and only add, that I am indebted to 

 my friend W. A. Leighton, Esq,, for an account of some 

 specimens examined by him at Shrewsbury, given in co- 

 lumn 5. of Table I. 



In all the subvarieties under varieties 8, 12, and 17, in 

 which the petals are more in number than nine, I consider 

 those above that number as stamens transformed into petals ; 

 as they may, as I believe, be always referred to a whorl within 

 that of the true petals. 



In one specimen of variety 8 subvariety 2, two of the 

 stamens had become small scales, being apparently in the first 

 stage of their transformation into petals. 



In variety 7 subvariety 3, 1 consider one of the petals to 

 be a transformed stamen, it being slightly within the other 

 petals ; and in variety 6 subvariety 3, one of the regular outer 

 whorl of sepals is half converted into a petal. 



