SWAMP-BUTTERCUP 



This is our earliest Buttercup — a fine, silky-haired 

 woodland species growing from six to twelve inches 

 high and blooming in dry open woods among the early 

 spring flowers. 



So early a Buttercup possesses a personal charm, 

 as if in its own person it represented the coming sum- 

 mer, as indeed it does. The leaves and stems rise from 

 fleshy roots, which explains their ability to swing into 

 the race so early. 



SWAMP-BUTTERCUP. MARSH-BUTTERCUP 



Ran iincidus septentrio7idlls 



Perennial. Low, swampy, moist, and shaded places. 

 New Brunswick to Manitoba, south to Georgia and Ken- 

 tucky. Frequent in northern Ohio. April-July. 



Roots. — Fibrous. 



Stems. — One to three feet high, thick, hollow, generally 

 smooth, sometimes downy, usually tall and branching, 

 the later branches sometimes procumbent and rooting at 

 the nodes. 



Leaves. — Frequently mottled ; lower leaves raised well 

 out of marsh or water on long petioles; mostly three- 

 cleft, the divisions cut into broad, wedge-like lobes, 

 variously toothed. 



Flowers. — Satin yellow, an inch across. 



Calyx. — Sepals five, spreading. 



Corolla. — Saucer-shaped, of five petals; each obovate 

 twice the length of the sepals, with a nectar-bearing pit, 

 and a scale at the base; the petals do not overlap one an- 

 other. 



Stamens. — Many, yellow. 



Pistil. — ;Many carpels, strongly margined, tipped by a 

 stout beak. 



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