CHAP. I.] THE GENUS RANUNCULUS. 11 



having any English one. The honour of giving 

 a name to the genus does not, however, rest on 

 them, but belongs to a common English weed. 



Every one who has travelled through England 

 in the months of June and July, must have 

 remarked the almost innumerable buttercups 

 which glitter among the long grass of the mea- 

 dows at that season ; and those who observe 

 closely, will have noticed that these brilliant 

 little flowers are never found in poor soil, or in 

 hilly situations, but in rich valleys where the 

 grass is rank and luxuriant from abundance of 

 moisture. It is this circumstance that has ob- 

 tained for the buttercup the botanical name of 

 Ranunculus, the word being derived from Rana, 

 a frog, a creature that delights in moist places. 



The buttercup being the type of the genus 

 Ranunculus, and the order Ranunculacese, a 

 close examination of its flowers will show the 

 peculiarities which distinguish both the genus 

 and the order. The characteristics of the order, 

 as far as regards the number and position of the 

 carpels and stamens, are shown in the section of 

 the flower in the lower part o'ijic). 4 ; and those 

 of the genus are, a gre^n calyx of five sepals, and 

 a bright coloured corolla of five petals (see a in 

 fig. 4) ; numerous stamens, the anthers of which 

 are adnate, that is, with the filament growing 

 up the back (see }>) ; and numerous carpels (<?) 



