narrowly spatulate, sometimes wanting, 2-3 mm. long; fruiting spike 2-5 cm. long, 

 2-3 mm. thick; mature carpels somewhat quadrate, with broader usually rhom- 

 boidal and flat back, traversed by very low keel, ending in a short and appressed 

 or often obsolete pointed tip. 



In damp argillaceous or calcareous soils, fallow fields, in water of borrow pits, 

 wet meadows, mud of ditches and on edge of ponds and about playa lakes, in 

 Okla. (Waterfall), throughout Tex., but mostly in cen. part, N. M. (Grant, Luna 

 and Rio Arriba cos.) and Ariz. (Navajo, Coconino, Yavapai, Pinal, Cochise, Santa 

 Cruz and Pima cos.), Mar.-July; from Fla. to Tex., N.M. and Ariz., n. to e. Va., 

 s. Ont., 111., Minn, and Sask., also Euras. and Afr. 



8. Trautvetteria F. & M. 



Probably 2 or 3 species in North America and Asia 



1. Trautvetteria grandis T. & G. 



Large perennial herb 5-10 dm. high, glabrous or nearly so, with slender under- 

 ground rootstocks and fascicled roots; stems slender, erect, branching above and 

 forming corymbose cymes; leaves large, palmately lobed; lower leaves long- 

 petioled, 1-2 dm. wide, deeply 5- to 11-lobed with the lobes acute and irregularly 

 and sharply deeply toothed; cauline leaves smaller than lower ones and short- 

 petioled to sessile; sepals 3 to 5, 3-6 mm. long, strongly concave, greenish-white, 

 early deciduous; epetalous; stamens numerous, conspicuous; filaments white, 

 clavate, 7-10 mm. long; pistils many, forming inflated glabrous achenes (3-5 mm. 

 long) with short recurved styles. 



In swamps about springs, bogs and along streams in N. M. (San Juan, San 

 Miguel, Bernalillo, Grant and Socorro cos.) and Ariz. (Apache Co.), July-Aug.; 

 Ida. to B. C, s. to N. M., Ariz, and Calif. 



9. Ranunculus L. Crowfoot. Buttercup 



Annual or perennial herbs of various aspects; cauline leaves alternate; flowers 

 regular, perfect, solitary or somewhat corymbed; sepals 3 to 5 or rarely more, 

 green or yellowish; petals commonly 5, more or less in some species, plane or 

 concave, mostly yellow or white, rarely reddish or green, each with a nectariferous 

 pit or scale on inner surface at or near base; stamens mostly numerous, rarely 

 as few as 5; filaments slender; anthers oblong or linear; pistils numerous in a 

 globose to ovoid or cylindric head; ovule 1; style long or short, straight, curved 

 or hooked; fruit an achene. 



About 400 species mostly in colder regions or at high altitudes in the tropics. 

 It is reported that all of the species are acrid or even poisonous. 



(Adapted from Lyman Benson in Am. Midi. Nat. 40:1-261. 1948.) 



1. Achenes roughly transversely ridged; petals not glossy, white, the claws some- 

 time yellow; aquatic plants (2) 



1. Achenes or utricles not transversely ridged (except in R. sceleratus which has 



40 or commonly 100 to 300 minute beakless achenes in an elongate 

 head); petals usually glossy, yellow or rarely red, white or green; 

 plants of wet places or occasionally aquatic (4) 



2(1). Style persistent after flowering; achene beak 0.7-1.1 mm. long; dissected 

 leaves once- or sometimes twice-trichotomous, then dichotomous.... 

 ; 31. R. longirostris. 



2. Style largely deciduous after flowering; achene beak 0.3 or rarely 0.5 mm. 



long; body of the achene obovoid, 1-1.5 mm. long, finely trans- 

 versely wrinkled ( 3 ) 



928 



