296 RANUNCULACE^. 



2. M. apetalus, Gray, var. leptnrus, Gray, Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 2 

 (1886). Smaller aud slender; the spikes (conical in the type) shorter but 

 often very slender: achenes with an ascending or somewhat spreading 

 prominent beak: seeds elongated-oblong. -Livermore and Sacramento 

 valleys, and far northward and eastward. The type of this species is of 

 South America. Mar. —May. 



3. M. alopecnroides, Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. i. 278 (1885); Gray, 

 Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 3. Scapes 1—2 in. high, stout, thickened upwards, 

 or nearly obsolete, and the conical spikes subsessile: top of carpel 

 oblong, with a wide soft-cellular border, and a conspicuous broad flattened 

 spreading beak: seeds oval, striate-reticulate. — Interior valley; near 

 Antioch, J/r.s. Curran, and about Vacaville, J^pso?;; the specimens of the 

 latter with nearly or quite sessile flowers and spikes, these less elongated 

 and somewhat oblong-conical. Mar. — May. 



4r. KUMLIENIA, Greene. Flaccid perennial, with rounded and lobed 

 mostly radical leaves, and a nearly leafless 1 — 2-flowered stem. Sepals 

 5—7, white-petaloid and conspicuous. Petals 5, small and inconspicuous, 

 consisting of an oval fleshy nectariferous-pitted blade and slender claw. 

 Stamens oo . Pistils qo ; becoming in maturity a rounded head of elon- 

 gated thin and somewhat utricular 1-seeded carpels, each tipped with a 

 persistent hooked style. 



1. K. hystricula, Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. i. 337 (1886); Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. vii. 328 (1868), under Eanuncuhis. Radical leaves long- 

 petioled, round-reniform, with 5 broad but not deep rounded lobes; 

 stems 4 — 10 in. high, with 1 or 2 leaves (3-lobed), and as many white 

 flowers, the expanded corolla-like calyx % in. broad: ripe carpels 

 brownish, of papery texture or thinner, lanceolate, 3 lines long including 

 the uncinate style, loosely investing the linear-oblong acute seed. — A rare 

 plant of the eastern slope of the Sierra at middle elevations; wearing the 

 general aspect of a Eainmculvji, but displaying the flowers of a Caltha 

 augmented by the nectary-like petals of Ilelleborus, the utricular fruit 

 peculiar. It has been found at Forest Hill near Newcastle, Bolander, 

 and on wet mossy rocks in the Yosemite, Parry. Apr. — June. 



5. RANUNCULUS, Pliny (Buttekctjp. Crowfoot). Mostly peren- 

 nial, with a tuft of fibrous or fleshy-fibroiis roots, terete stems, which 

 are erect, procumbent, creeping or submersed, and entire or cleft or 

 divided (sometimes submersed and capillary-dissected) leaves. Flowers 

 solitary, or few and scattered, regular, yellow (sometimes white). Sepals 

 5, commonly reflexed. Petals 5 (rarely 10 or more), spreading, with a 

 nectariferous scale or pit at base within. Stamens and pistils oo , the 

 latter becoming compressed smooth or tuberculate or even muricate, 

 glabrous or pubescent, usually beaked achenes, disposed in globose or 

 somewhat elongated heads. 



