N. ORD. RANUNCULACE&. A, 
Tribe. -RANUNCULEA, 
GENUS. —RANUNCULUS, LINN. 
SEX, SYST.—POLYANDRIA POLYGYNIA. 
RANUNCULUS REPENS. 
CREEPING BUTTERCUPS. 
SYN.—RANUNCULUS REPENS, LINN.; R. PROSTRATUS, TOMENTOSUS, 
AND LANUGINOSUS, VAR. y, POIR.; -R. INTERMEDIUS, EATON; R. CLIN- 
TONII, BECK. 
COM. NAMES.—CREEPING BUTTERCUPS OR CROWFOOT; (FR.) RANON- 
CULE; (GER.) HAHNENFUSS. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE PLANT RANUNCULUS REPENS, LINN. 
Description.—This extremely variable, low, hairy or glabrous herb, extends 
to from 1 to 4 feet. Stems at first upright then ascending, some forming long 
runners in summer. Leaves 3-divided to the base: /eaflets all petiolulate, or at 
least the terminal one, broadly cuneate or ovate, usually 3-cleft or parted and 
variously cut. Peduncles furrowed. Calyx spreading. /efals obovate, bright 
yellow, much longer than the sepals. /vwzt a globular head of numerous carpels ; 
achenia flat, strongly margined, and furnished with a stout, straight beak. 
History and Habitat.—The Creeping Buttercups are indigenous to North 
America, where they habit moist or shady places, ditches and wet meadows, from 
Georgia northward and westward ; flowering from May to August. 
In woods that tend to dryness the plant is erect and shows no tendency to 
spread much by runners; but in low, wet ditches along swamp lands its growth is 
_ often prodigious. 
This species is one of the lesser in acridity, and its medical uses have been 
simply generical, it being generally used only when the more powerful species 
could not be procured; its history, therefore, will be covered by &. sceleratus, 3. 
PART USED AND PREPARATION.—The whole fresh herb, gathered at its 
fullest growth in October, is chopped and pounded to a pulp, enclosed in “2” 
of new linen and pressed. The juice is then mingled, by brisk agitation, with an 
equal part by weight of alcohol, and allowed to stand eight days in a dark, cvol 
place. The tincture formed by filtration should have a brownish-green color by 
_ transmitted light, a slightly acrid taste, and an acid reaction. 
