BUTTERCUP FAMILY 97 



vious year, seldom more than 6 in. high, the flowers solitary 

 on leafy-bracted stalks. Leaves glabrous; the lower long- 

 petioled, roundish, *4 to 1 in. across, with 5 to 9 roundish or 

 oblong obtuse lobes or teeth; upper leaves sessile, fan- 

 shaped, parted into narrow lobes. Sepals glabrous to shaggy- 

 pubescent. Petals obovate, yellow, 34 to ^ in. long. — Near 

 snow banks above timber-line on Clouds Rest, Mt. Lyell, 

 Vogelsang Pass, Piute Mt., etc. 



7. R. calif ornicus Benth. Common Buttercup. Lower 

 leaves long-petioled, divided or parted, the lobes coarsely and 

 sharply toothed; upper leaves few, entire or with few lobes. 

 Petals mostly 5 (5 to 15), spatulate, deep glossy yellow, % to 

 y 2 in. long, short-clawed. Akenes roundish, glabrous, each 

 with a minute curved beak. 



The Common Buttercup is a pubescent, loosely branched 

 plant, 1 to 2 ft. high, with numerous flowers in an open pani- 

 cle. It is common around dry meadows at the lower alti- 

 tudes, especially in the Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite, and Wawona 

 districts. 



R. tenellus Nutt. is to be expected at low altitudes. It may 

 be distinguished from no. 7 by the more slender beak of the 

 hairy akene, the petals never more than 5. 



8. R. orthorhynchus Hook. Lower leaves divided into 3 

 or 5 broad coarsely toothed leaflets; upper leaves small, 

 merely lobed and toothed. Petals mostly 5, oblong, yellow, 

 J /2 to Y± in. long, sessile. Akenes ovate, margined, the nearly 

 straight beak as long as the body. 



In wet meadows near Hetch Hetchy Valley, in upper Yo- 

 semite Valley, and at other low altitudes this coarse, strongly 

 pubescent plant may be found in abundance, often growing 

 with the Common Buttercup. It is commonly 1 to V/2 ft. 

 high. 



4. CALTHA. Marsh Marigold. 



1. C. bifldra DC. Smooth glabrous perennial from a fasci- 

 cle of fibrous roots, the simple leaves all basal and the white 

 or blue flowers terminating naked peduncles. Leaves fleshy, 

 round-reniform, wavy-margined or bluntly toothed, 1 to 4 in. 

 across, long petioled. Flower-stalks 4 to 12 in. high. Sepals 

 6 to 9, H to fy& in. long. Petals none. 



Associated with the Shooting-star, this round-leaved herb 

 often occupies half-boggy places at high altitudes, as along 

 the swales just south of Glacier Point, or it may grow along 

 moist, grassy stream banks, as at Snow Flat. It is often 



