Those plants with noticeably spreading-pubescent stems are segregated as var. 

 villicaulis Shinners. 



8. Ranunculus fasckularis Muhl. Prairie buttercup. 



Appressed-pubescent terrestrial perennial; roots filiform or fusiform-tuberous, 

 to 5 mm. in diameter; stems weak, erect or suberect, often scapose, not rooting, 

 silky-canescent. 1-3 dm. long, not fistulous; basal leaves with petioles about 1 

 dm. long, compound or at least the early ones 3-parted, ovate-oblong in outline, 

 25-55 mm. long, 2-4 cm. broad, distinctly longer than broad, sometimes the 

 leaf partly bipinnate, the 3 or 5 leaflets or divisions simple and rounded to deeply 

 3- to 7-parted and again angularly toothed, the ultimate parts blunt or rounded 

 at the apices; stipular leaf bases 15-35 mm. long; cauline leaves usually 1 or 2, 

 alternate, much-reduced; pedicels 1.5-6 cm. long in flower, 2.5-9 cm. long in 

 fruit; sepals 5, greenish-yellow, spreading, ovate-attenuate, 6-8 mm. long, 2-3 

 mm. broad, usually silvery-pubescent, promptly deciduous; petals 5 or sometimes 

 up to 9, yellow, obovate-oblanceolate, 7-15 mm. long, 3-6 mm. broad, the 

 truncate nectary scale glabrous and free almost its whole length; stamens usually 

 40 to 50; achenes 10 to 30 in a subglobose head 4.5-8 mm. long and 6-10 mm. 

 in diameter, obovate-orbicular but with a short flat stalk, the main body 1.5-3 

 mm. long, smooth, glabrous, the margin keeled but usually not prominent, the 

 straight beak slender and 2-2.3 mm. long; receptacle fusiform or obovoid, 1.5-2.5 

 mm. long in flower, 3-7 mm. long in fruit, sparsely hispidulous. 



In sandy soil in shallow water, low pinelands, meadows and seepage slopes in 

 Okla. {Waterfall) and e. Tex., Feb.-May; widespread in e. N.A., w. to Tex. and 

 Kan. 



The two following varieties are found in our area. 



Var. apricus (Greene) Fern. {R. apricus Greene). Stems 1-3 dm. long; leaflets 

 or leaf segments oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, shallowly few-toothed apically 

 or entire; petals 5. 



Var. cuneiformis (Small) L. Benson. Stems 18-25 cm. long; petals 7 to 9, 13-15 

 mm. long when fully expanded; achenes 3 mm. long, 2.5 mm. dorsiventrally, the 

 margin 0.5 mm. broad, distinctly marked; endemic in Kerr Co., Tex. 



9. Ranunculus macranthus Scheele. Large buttercup. Fig. 458. 



Strongly hirsute to subglabrous terrestrial perennial with stout roots; stems 

 reclining to suberect, not rooting, to 1 m. long, usually much smaller, fistulous, 

 densely hirsute; basal leaves with hirsute to glabrous petioles to 3 dm. long, com- 

 pound and dissected or sometimes simple and merely lobed, oblong-ovate in out- 

 line, 4-23 cm. long, 3-25 cm. broad, usually of 3 to 7 leaflets that are truncate 

 or obtuse at base and acute or barely obtuse at apex, appressed-hispidulous; 

 pedicels to 1 1 cm. long in flower and 3 dm. long in fruit, appressed-pubescent; 

 sepals 5, yellowish-green, reflexed, ovate-attenuate, 6-10 mm. long, 3-5 mm. 

 broad, appressed-pilose dorsally, promptly deciduous; petals 8 to 18, yellow, 

 oblanceolate or rarely obovate, sometimes emarginate, 1-2 cm. long, 2.5-10 mm. 

 broad; achenes 35 to 130 in a subglobose or cylindroid head 7-14 mm. long and 

 7-10 mm. in diameter, elliptic-oblong to obovate, 2.5-4 mm. long smooth, 

 glabrous, the margin keeled, the straight beak slender and 3-5 mm. long; recep- 

 tacle cylindroid, 2-3 mm. long in flower, 5-12 mm. long in fruit, hairy but the 

 hair often sparse. 



In swamps, marshes, wet meadows, wet soil in drainage areas, wet woods 

 along creeks, on mud flats about pools and seepage slopes in cen., s. and w. Tex., 

 w. to Ariz. (Apache, Navajo, Cochise and Santa Cruz cos.), Mar.-Sept.; in s.w. 

 U.S. and Mex. 



939 



