230 Mr. Charles C. Babington on Ranunculus aquatilis. 



R. sivc Polyanthcmo aquatili albo affine, Millefolium, Maratri- 

 j)hyllonfluitans. Ray, 376. 



R. aquatilis, c. Linn. 782. Sm. FL Br. ii. 596. Knrj. Fl. iii. 55. 



R. fluitans, Lam. FL Fr. iii. 164. Reich. 719. Koch, 12. Gaud. 

 iii. 525. Bluff, et Wing. 286. DreJ. 192. 



R. fluviatilis, Sibth. 176. Wallr. 284. Sf. Amans, Fl. Agen. (var. a.) 



R. pantothrix, y. pcucedanifolius, DC &ys£. i. 236. 



R. aquatilis, e. peucedanifolius, DC. Prod. i. 27. 



R. peucedanifolius, " All. Ped. No. 1469 ?" Schlech. in Linncea 

 (1831) 576. Host. ii. 118 ? Lois. i. 392. 



In rivers and also in stagnant water. I have seen it in a perfectly 

 stagnant ditch at Mildenhall, Suffolk. 



Stems thick, very long, sometimes even twenty or thirty 

 feet in length, floating near to the surface of the water, pro- 

 ducing a few fibrous roots from the lower joints, branched; the 

 internodes very long. Leaves, including their long petioles, 

 from three inches to a foot or more in length, divided at long 

 intervals in a di- or trichotomous manner, the segments very 

 long, linear, rather flat and nearly parallel to each other ; the 

 upper leaves are often nearly sessile, and sometimes but rarely 

 divided into a few short segments which are dilated towards 

 their points, not linear or narrowed towards the point as in 

 R. aquatilis when this structure occurs : very rarely upper 

 floating leaves are found w T hich are " half trifld, truncate, and 

 broader than long" : usually all the leaves have the same di- 

 vided structure. The stipules are narrow, elongated, and in- 

 conspicuous, except in the upper part of the plant, where they 

 are broad and sheathing. Flowers large, resembling those of 

 R. aquatilis. Carpels obovate, slightly gibbous, laterally 

 tipped by the short obtuse persistent straight style, trans- 

 versely wrinkled, usually, as well as the torus, slightly bristly. 



R. fluviatilis, Bigelow, e Boston Flora/ 139, which Smith 

 notices as a totally different species from this, is now referred 

 by Torrey and Gray, ' Fl. of N. Amer.' i. 20. to jR. Purshii, 

 Rich., in ( Hook. Fl. Br.-Amer.* 



It is probable that this species ought to have been called 

 JR. peucedanifolius after Allioni ; but not being certain of the 

 correctness of that synonym, I have adopted R. fluitans, Lam., 

 as the next oldest and the most generally employed name. 



St. John's Coll., Cambridge, March 18, 1839. 



