No. 80. RANUNCULUS. 7 



DESCRIPTION. Root fibrose, fasciculate, peren- 

 nial. Stem two feet high, with many branches and 

 flowers, terete, pubescent, erect. Leaves alternate, pe- 

 tiolate, broadly tripai-ted, pubescent, segments broad 

 lanceolate, with many unequal gashes, all acute i the 

 upper leaves almost sessile, with three linear entire seo-- 

 ments. Flowers corymbose, large and yellow, pedun- 

 cles unequal, not furrowed. Calyx with five spreadino- 

 folioles, hairy, oval, obtuse. Petals rounded, entire! 

 Seeds in a globose head. 



^ HISTORY. An extensive genus ; nearly all the spe- 

 aes have similar active properties, except R. auricomus, 

 R^ lanuginosns^ R.fammula^ R. aquatilis, and a few 

 others which are mild and not acrid. The R. scelerahcs^ 

 R. bulbosusy R. repens, R, fascicular is^ R.pennsylvainciis^ 

 &c. are chiefly used with us ; the two first, as well as 

 R. acris^ are supposed to have been imported from Eu- 

 rope with grass seeds, but now grow abundantlv in our 

 meadows and pastures, which they adorn with"^ yellow 

 blossoms in the spring. Although very acrid when fresh 

 they become mild by drying, and do not spoil the hay' 

 becoming harmless to cattle, who, avoid them carefully 

 when growing. Sheep and goats, however, eat the R. 

 acrts^ and hogs like the roots of R. bulbosiis. The mild 

 kinds are liked by cattle, and cows fed on them o-ive 

 ood milk. The R. sceleratus is very similar to R. acris^ 

 lit with smooth leaves and grooved peduncles. The R. 

 bulbosus is easily known by its bulbous root, and the R. 

 fascicularis by a bundle of fleshy roots. They are com- 

 mon alt over the United States- 



PROPERTIES. The ivhole plant, but chiefly the 

 roots, of all those species, are of a burning, acrid, and 

 corrosive taste when fresh. They act on the skin as 

 rubefacient and escharotics. These properties were 

 known very anciently, and they were used for common 

 blisters before Spanish flies became in general use. The 

 acrid principle, like that of .^ rum, is volatile, and disap- 

 pears by the application of heat or even desication, but 

 may be preserved by distillation : the distilled water 

 being very acrid, and holding in solution a peculiar sub- 

 stance, AcroiJe, which crystallizes, is inflammable, and 

 hardly soluble in any menstruum. The acrimony of 



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