22 RANUNCULACEiE. Ranunculus, 



west to the Pacific ! y. Pennsylvania to Kentucky ! — May^uly. — Stems at 

 length 1-4 feet long, commonly prostrate, and olten rooting; the earliest 

 iiowering ones erect; usually hairy below, but often nearly smooth. Leaves 

 with the petioles more or less pilose. Peduncles 1-3 inches long. Flowers 

 middle sized (in sy)eciinens from Oregon smaller). Carpels in a globose head, 

 margined, suborbicular, pointed with a short beak, which is nearly straight 

 or somewhat incurved. A variable plant; the stem being procumbent or 

 erect; the flowers sometimes much smaller, sometimes larger than in R. 

 acris, and the leaves presenting much diversity of form and lobing. — Pursh's 

 specimen of this plant in Lambert's herbarium is labelled in the hand-^vrit- 

 ing of De Candolle. 



29. JR. hispidus (Michx.) : stem erect, branching and, Avith the petioles, 

 very pilose with stiif spreading hairs ; leaves trifoliolate or 3-parted ; seg- 

 ments oval, acute, laciniate ; pedicels with the pubescence appressed ; calyx 

 appressed ; carpels smooth, pointed with a very short style. — DC. proch: 1. 

 p. 38 ; Michx.! fl. 1. p. 321; Ell. sk. 2. p. 62. R. Belvisii, DC. I. c. R. 

 Penusylvanicus, Pmsh ! fl. 2. p. 393. 



Shady rich soils, often in very wet places, New Jersey ! to S. Carolina ! 

 and west to Oregon. May-July. — Stem 1^-2 feet high, widely branching, 

 rather naked above. Leaves very hairy, often divided nearly to the base 

 into many acute segments. Flowers as large as in R. acris. 



30. i?. occidentalis (Nutt.! mss.): "hirsute with shining spreading hairs; 

 leaves trifid or 3-parted ; segments cuneate and trifid, or incisely toothed, the 

 lateral ones often subdivided ; the uppermost leaves trifid, with linear acute 

 segments ; stem divaricate, many-flowered ; sepals reflexed, half as long as 

 the eUiptical-oblong petals ; carpels smooth, much compressed, with the re- 

 volute style nearly their own length." — R. recurvatus, Bong. ! veg. Sitcha, 

 in mem,, acad. St. Petersb. (6 ser.) 2. p. 123. (excl. syn.) ; Hook. ! fi. 

 Bor.-Am. 1. p. 20. (in part.) 



Plains of the Oregon River, near woods, Nuttall ! Dr. Scouler ! ; Sitcha, 

 Bongard! — Root composed of fasciculate fibres. Stem slender, about a 

 foot high, somewhat branching, rather naked, densely clothed with shining 

 brown hairs. Leaves scarcely more than an inch in length and breadth. 

 Flowers Avhen expanded 8-10 lines in diameter. Carpels slightly hairy, mar- 

 gined ; the beak, when mature, so much recurved as to be revolute. — Nearly 

 related to R. lanuginosus of Europe, but differs in its slender naked stems, 

 smaller leaves and flowers, narrow petals, &c. — We refer to this species R. 

 recurvatus of Hooker, in part, because we have specimens under that name 

 from Dr. Scouler, collected in Oregon. 



31. R. Pennsylvaniciis (Linn.): stem and petioles pilose-hispid with 

 spreading hairs ; leaves ternate, villous, Avith the hairs appressed ; lower ones 

 on long petioles, the leaflets petiolulate ; lobes lanceolate, incised ; calyx re- 

 flexed, longer than the small petals ; heads oblong or somewhat cylindrical ; 

 carpels pointed with a very short straight style. — DC pi-odr. 1. p. 40 ; Ell. 

 sk. 2. p. 63 ; Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 19. R. Canadensis, Jacq. ic. rar. 

 1. t. 165. R. hispidus, Pursh ! fl. 2. p. 395. 



Wet places, Maine ! Michigan ! New-York ! to Georgia. British America, 

 west to the Pacific. June-Aug. — Whole plant hispidly pilose. Stem stout 

 and erect, 1-2 feet high, branching. Flowers very small. 



32. R. recurvatus (Poir.): erect; stem and petioles clothed with spread- 

 ing somewhat stiff" hairs; leaves 3-parted, villous with appressed hairs or 

 nearly glabrous; segments broadly oval, incisely toothed, the lateral ones 

 2-lobed ; calyx reflexed ; petals narroAvly oblong, shorter than the sepals 

 (sometimes abortive) ; heads ovate-globose ; carpels Avith a short hooked style. 

 —Poir. diet. 6. p. 123; Pursh, fl.2. p. 394; DC.prodr. 1. p. 39; Deless. 

 ic. 1. t. 41 5 Ell. sk. 2. p. 63 ; Hook. ! fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 20. (in part.) 



