POLYANDRIA— POLYGYNIA. Ranunculus. 47 



FL Br. 588. Engl. Bot. v. 33. L 2306. Curt. Mag. t. 164. De- 

 Cand. Syst. v. 1 . 245. Bull. Fr. t. 123. 



R. pumiluSjgramineisfoliis. Lob. Ic. G/l ./. Baiih. Hist. v. 3. 850./. 



In dry alpine pastures in Wales. 



Brought from North Wales by Mr. Pritchard. IVlihering. 



Perennial. May, June. 



Root tuberous, with several thick fleshy fibres, and crowned with 

 the thready remains of old leaves. Stern about a foot high, round, 

 smooth, erect, bearing from 1 to 3 or 4 bright-yellow, rather 

 large, flowers, and a few small sessile leaves. Most of the leaves 

 are radical, on short sheathing stalks, grassy, linear, acute, 

 glaucous, numerously ribbed. Cal. quite smooth, spreading, not 

 deflexed. Nect. a tubular scale. Botanists have confounded 

 with this several synonyms belonging to R. pyrenccus ofLinnseus ; 

 and those of Bauhin and Dalechamp in Fl. Brit, must be ex- 

 punged. The error is corrected in Rees's Ct/cl. at n. 7 and 8. 



4. R. Ficaria. Pilewort Crowfoot. Lesser Celandine. 



Leaves heart-shaped, angular, stalked, smooth. Petals nu- 

 merous, elliptic-oblong. 



R. Ficaria. Linn. Sp. PL 11 A. mild. v. 2. 1312. Fl. Br. 589. 

 Engl. Bot. V.9. t. 584. Curt. Lond.fasc. 2. t. 39. Mart. Rust. t.2\. 

 Hook. Scot. \7 A. Fl.Dan. t.499. Bull. Fr. t.43. Ehrh.Pl.Of.376. 



Ficaria. Brunf. Herb. v. 1.215./". 



F. n. 1160. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 67. 



F. verna. Huds. 244. 



F. ranunculoides. Roth Germ. v. 1.241. v. 2. p. \. 622. DeCand. 

 Syst. V. 1.304. 



Chelidonium minus. Raii Sun. 246. Ger. Em.8l6.f. Trag. Hist. 

 1 13./. Fuchs. Hist. 867./ Matth. Valgr.v. 1. 578./ Cumer. 

 Epit. 403. f. Dalech. Hist. 1048./ Cord. Hist. 121, 2./ 



In meadows, bushy places, and about hedge banks, every where. 



Perennial. April. 



Root fibrous, accompanied with many fleshy, oblong, annual knobs. 

 Herb smooth, of a bright shining green, rather .succulent. Stems 

 either erect or recumbent, from 3 to 10 inches long, branched, 

 leafy. Leaves alternate, stalked, heart-shaped, angular or wavy 

 at the margin, sometimes spotted with black. Footstalks longer 

 than the leaves ; dilated, membranous and sheathing at the 

 base. P7. terminal, solitary, on long stalks. Cal. of 3, rarely 

 more, roundish, concave leaves. Pet. elliptic-oblong, generally 

 9, often 8 or 10, of a golden yellow, as if varnished ; turning 

 white by the action of light. Nect. a small hollow in the base of 

 each petal, closed with a scale. 



Those who retain Ficaria as a genus, should observe that Hud- 

 son's name verna, published in 1762, is prior to ranunculoides, 

 and in every respect more eligible j the latter being a barbarous 

 jumble of Latin and Greek, such as too often disgraces our sci- 

 ence. It ought to have been ranunculiniis. 



