OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: FEBRUARY 13, 1872. 373 



6. Ranunculus Flammula L. Here we have for the first time in 

 this country specimens of genuine R. Flammula which in size and 

 luxuriance fully equal the largest European forms ; also (6 a ) very lux- 

 uriant specimens of the var. intermedius. 



7. Ranunculus orthorhynchus Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 1, p. 21, 

 t. 9. The figure admirably represents this species, which is as rare in 

 collections as it is well marked in character. But the var. alpinus of 

 S. Watson, in King's Exploration on the Fortieth Parallel, is mani- 

 festly a form of my R. adoneus, with less rounded petals. The Rev. 

 Edward L. Greene likewise collected it on the higher mountains in 

 Colorado. To R. orthorhynchus, on the other hand, clearly belongs 

 Lyall's plant from "Washington Territory, referred to by Mr. Watson 

 as R. fascicularis.* 



8. Ranunculus Nelsonii Gray, which has been confounded with 

 R. Occidentalis Nutt. ; and (9), its more slender variety, R. tenellus 

 Nutt., which would seem to be distinct in its perfectly smooth fruit and 

 less elongated persistent style, but is connected by transitional speci- 

 mens. The synonymy is given in the subjoined foot-note.f 



* Ranunculus fascicularis, it may be noted, is an Eastern species, a good deal con- 

 fused from the first, and not extending beyond or even to the Rocky Mountains. 

 What has been so called from California is probably R. Californicus Benth. Mr. 

 Watson's plant in King's Exploration is undeterminable. And Muhlenberg him- 

 self confounded his species with early states of the hairy form (R. hispidus Muhl.) 

 of that polymorphous species which we refer to R. repens L., the limits of which it 

 is still a problem to define. To this belongs the R. fascicularis of Schlechtendal 

 (Animad. Ranun. 2, p. 30, t. 2), described and figured from specimens sent by 

 Muhlenberg to Willdenow, and also R. Schlectendalii Hook. El. Bor.-Am., founded 

 on specimens gathered by Drummond on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, 

 which were truly identified with Schlechtendal's figure ; yet the R. hispidus of the 

 same work is only a more developed state of it. R. fascicularis Muhl. fortunately 

 was first published by Bigelow, in the Florida Bostoniensis (ed. 1, 1814), on a plant so 

 named by Muhlenberg, identical with that figured by Hooker (tab. 8), and in my 

 Genera Ulustrata (tab. 9) ; to this must pertain the name, whatever else Muhlen- 

 berg may have had in view notwithstanding. 



t Ranunculi Oncostyli, nempe achenio plano-compresso pi. m. marginato stylo 

 recurvo-uncinato persistente superato. 



* Macranthi, petalis (5 - 12) semipollicaribus aureis ; stylo subulato brevi. 



R. Californicus Benth. PI. Hartw. p. 295. R. dissectus Hook. & Am. Bot. 

 Beech, p. 316, non Bieb. R. delphinifolius ? Torr. & Gray," Fl. 1, p. 659, non 

 HBK. R. canus Torr. Bot. Whippl. p. 6. — California, extending to Oregon. 



