2 TEANSACTIONS OF THE [OCT. 3, 



The names were referred to the Council for action. 



Dr. Bolton read a communication from Cairo, Egypt, dated, 

 August 29th, 1892, and containing a sealed envelope enclosing 

 a drawing of an apparatus for producing perj^etual motion. 

 The pajier has been deposited with other papers of the Academy. 



Dr. Britton rejiorted that the Audubon Monument was near- 

 ly completed and that the ceremonies of unveiling would take 

 place in the course of a few weeks. 



Prof. D. S. Martin called attention to the death of Prof. Wm. 

 P. Trowbridge and on motion the chair appointed Profs. Chand- 

 ler, Martin and Bees, a committee to draw up and present suit- 

 able resolutions to the Academy. 



A paper was read by Dr. N. L. Britton on Ranunculus re- 

 pens L. and its Eastern North American Allies, illustrated by 

 specimens. 



RANUNCULUS REPENS AND ITS EASTERN NORTH 

 AMERICAN ALLIES. 



By N. L. Britton. 



Owing to the tendency to keep the number of species as small 

 as possible, which has characterized the work of many American 

 botanists from the time of Nuttall to the latter years of Dr. 

 Gray's life, many of our plants have been imperfectly under- 

 stood. This is notably true in the case of the Buttercups here 

 discussed. In the Torrey and Gray Flora of 1838, the group 

 was divided among B. repens, L., with two varieties, and li. 

 hir'sutus, Michx. In the first edition of Gray's JManual (1848), 

 hirsidus was dropped and 11. fa!«:icularis, Muhl., admitted; and 

 this arrangement was maintained in the subsequent editions 

 including the fifth (18G7), and was also followed by Wood in his 

 Class-Book, and Botanist and Florist. In Dr. Gray's books the 

 difficulty about B. repens was disj^osed of by the statement that 

 it is "extremely variable in size and foliage." Meanwhile 

 everybody that looked at the plants at all critically was unable 

 to determine them satisfactorily. 



In 188G, when Dr. Gi'ay took up the Ranunculacea? for the 

 Synoptical Flora (Proc. Am. Acad., xxi. 3G3 et seq.) he 



