yellowish, reflexed, narrowly elliptic, 4-5 mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. wide, slightly 

 hairy, promptly deciduous; petals 5, yellow, nearly orbicular, 2-3 mm. long and 

 wide; nectary scale glabrous, free for two-thirds of its length, about the breadth 

 of the adjacent petal surface; stamens 15 to 20; achenes 60 to 80 in a cylindroid 

 to cylindroid-ovoid head 10-14 mm. long and 7-9 mm. in diameter, ovate, about 

 2.5 mm. long, smooth, glabrous, the stout beak 0.6-0.9 mm. long and not re- 

 curved; receptacle cylindroid. about 2 mm. long in flower, 8-12 mm. long in 

 fruit, pubescent. 



In wet meadows, standing in shallow water on edge of pools and lakes, in N. M. 

 (Grant, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Socorro and Taos cos.) and Ariz. (Apache, 

 Navajo, Coconino and Yavapai cos.), Apr.-July; Nfld. to Alas., s. to N.J., N.M. 

 and Ariz.; Burma, China. 



6. Ranunculus Macounii Britt. Fig. 456. 



Hirsute or glabrous annual or perennial; roots 1.5-2 mm. thick; stem reclining 

 (at least below) or prostrate to suberect, often rooting at least at the lower nodes, 

 2.5-9 dm. long, branching, densely hirsute or hispid, or glabrous; petioles 5-20 

 cm long, densely hirsute to glabrous, the stipular leaf bases 1-3 cm. long; basal 

 leaf blades simple or pinnately compound, deltoid in outline, 3-8 cm. long, 5-13 

 cm. wide, divided into 3 divisions or pinnate with 3 or 5 leaflets 3-parted and the 

 parts again lobed, pubescent to glabrous; cauline leaves alternate, all but the upper- 

 most similar to the basal and petioled; pedicels 1-8 cm. long in flower, 3-10 cm. 

 long in fruit, usually appressed-hispidulous; sepals 5, yellowish, often purple- 

 tinged, reflexed almost their whole length, ovate-triangular, 4-6 (-7) mm. long, 

 2.5-4 mm. wide, glabrous to pilose, promptly deciduous; petals 5, yellow, obovate, 

 3-5 (-7.5) mm. long, 2.5-3.5 (-6.5) mm. wide; nectary scale glabrous, free for 

 most of its length, truncate; stamens 15 to 35; achenes 20 or 30 to 50 in an 

 ovoid-cylindroid head 7-12 mm. long and 5-7 mm. in diameter, obovate with an 

 acute base, 2-3 mm. long, smooth, glabrous, the margin conspicuously bevelled 

 and narrowly keeled, the stout beak nearly deltoid and 1-1.2 mm. long, gradually 

 curving or straight with a right angle bend at the tip; receptacle fusiform- 

 cylindroid, 1-2 mm. long in flower, 4-5 mm. long in fruit, hispid. 



Creeping in mud about lakes and ponds in marshes and ditches, in N. M. 

 (Colfax, Sandoval, San Miguel and Taos cos.) and Ariz. (Apache and Coconino 

 COS.), June-Sept.; Nfld. and Lab. to Alas., s. to Mich., Neb., N.M., Ariz, and 

 Calif. 



7. Ranunculus carolinianus DC. Fig. 457. 



Tufted perennial with thick fibrous roots, subglabrous to spreading-pubescent 

 (especially on stem), after flowering developing long trailing or repent leafy 

 branches; earliest basal leaves small, ovate, simple or 3-lobed or 3-cleft; later 

 leaves larger, long-petioled, with 3 mostly petiolulate rhombic cuneate 3-cleft or 

 3-divided and sharply toothed leaflets; flowering stems slender, flexuous, sub- 

 glabrous, pilose or spreading-hirsute, elongating to 5 dm. long, finally producing 

 trailing branches; flowers 1 to 10; sepals 3.5-5 mm. long, promptly reflexed; 

 petals oblong, 8-12 mm. long, 2.5-7 mm. broad; fruiting head subglobose, 7-13 

 mm. in diameter, with only 10 to 20 achenes; fruiting receptacle 4-5 mm. long; 

 achenes obliquely rounded-ovate, with body 3.5-5 mm. long, the marginal wing 

 0.5-1 mm. wide and separated from the face by a high acute ridge; beak sub- 

 marginal, erect, lance-subulate, 1.5-2.5 mm. long, with short deciduous terminal 

 stigma R. septentrionalis Poir. var. pterocarpus L. Benson. 



Low woods, swamps, marshy ground, edge of water and in mud, thickets and 

 shores in s.e. Okla. (McCurtain and Craig cos.) and e. fourth of Tex , Feb.-May; 

 from Fla. to Tex., n. to Md., W.Va., s. Ind., s. 111., Mo. and Neb. 



936 



