RANUNCULUS FLAMMULA. ORD. XXVI. Multisiliquz. 55 
at both ends, supported on long foot-stalks, which are hollow on one side, 
and flattened; the stem leaves are lanceolate, alternate, and stand upon 
shorter foot-stalks, which are dilated and sheathing at the base ; the upper- 
most, and those next the flowers, are linear, all of them smooth, more or less 
toothed, but sometimes entire. The flowers are terminal, opposite the 
leaves, and are placed on round, erect stalks, without bracteas. The corolla 
is of a bright yellow colour, composed of five roundish, somewhat concave, 
heart-shaped petals, with short claws, and very minute nectaries. The calyx 
consists of five ovate, obtuse, slightly villous, concave, deciduous, leaves ofa 
yellowish colour. The stamens are numerous, not half the length of the pe 
tals, with oblong anthers. The germens are collected into a head, each fur- 
nished with a small reflected stigma, without any style. The seeds are lenti- 
cular, smooth, with a small, slightly curved, point. Figure (a) represents a 
single petal, (b) the calyx, (c) the germens, (d) a stamen. 
This species of crowfoot is indigenous to Britain, flowering in the months 
of June, July, and August ; it is also a common plant throughout Kurope, 
delighting in watery situations, yet found abundantly in the wet and marshy 
places on heaths and commons. We are told by Mr. Lightfoot, that in gra- 
velly soils it degenerates to a trailing, divarfish size, with small linear leaves, 
and that in some states it differs very little from the ranunculus lingua, (great 
spear-wort crowfoot.) The genus ranunculus forms a very numerous tribe of 
plants,* the greater number of which possess acrid qualities. The indigenous 
species that are most common, and also the most poisonous, are, the ranun- 
culus acris, ranunculus sceleratus, ranunculus bulbosus, ranunculus arvensis, 
and ranunculus flammula. The former species will be found figured in 
Vol. Ill of this work. Andas the sensible qualities, poisonous effects, medi- 
cal properties, and uses, of these several species of ranunculus, are nearly the 
same, we must refer our readers, for information on those subjects, to that 
article. The ranunculus flammula has obtained a place in the Materia Medica 
of the Dublin College; and without doubt with the intention of being em- 
ployed as a vesicatory, for which purpose it was formerly much used; but 
since the introduction of cantharides, this acrid plant has been nearly laid 
aside; but we are told that it vesicates with much less pain than the Spanish 
* Sixty-one species are enumerated by Willdenow, in the fourteenth edition of his 
Systema Vegetabilium : one hundred and fifty-nine by Decandolle, in his Prodromus. 
Fifteen species are natives of Britain. (See Smith’s English Flora.) 
