CANADIAN EANUNCULACB.'E. 56 



Abbé ProAraucher, who, iu " Flore Canadienne," repeats : " Renonctile scélérate, Cursed Crow- 

 foot." Maconn evidently thotight the epithets had waxed strong enough for a plant that 

 was not known to have done harm, for in his Catalogue we find it standing simply as 

 the " Noxious Buttercup." Probably the true English rendering of the name would be 

 the "Blistering'" or "Biting" Bixttercup, or Crowfoot, as the " Herha scelereita" no doubt 

 originally obtained that ancient name on account of its supremely acrid taste and blister- 

 ing properties. Hudson (Fl. Angl.) quotes " Ranu.nculus palustris Herba " as an article of 

 pharmacy. Pennant, in ITÏS, (Tour in Scotland, II., \). 43) wrote that the Water Ranun- 

 culus is used instead of Cantharidcs to raise blisters." Lightfoot (1. c.) says : " The whole 

 plant has a most acrimonious equality ; if bruised and laid upon any part of the body it 

 will iu a few hours raise a blister. Strolling beggars have been known sometimes 

 purposely to make sores with it, in order the more readily to move compassion." Other 

 early Floras and Herbals give similar testimony. The word, sreleratm, is used in the 

 sense of " sharp," "hot," " acrid " to the taste. Plautus has "teritur sinapis scelerata," — 



the mustard is being ground. Also in the sense of " noxiovis," deadly," by Pliny : 



" sceleratissimi scrpeutium," — the deadliest serpents. It is doubtful Avhether the formation 

 of so-called English names for plants l)y translation of their botanical names is of any real 

 benefit. It is otherwise with vernacular names in actual use by the people of the countries 

 in which the plants grow ; these are of real importance, not in a botanical point of view 

 only, but in relation to language, history and anthropology. In the case of the present 

 plant, we have a good well-used English name in the " Celery-leaved Crowfoot," which 

 may very well displace all others. Rousseau defended Liunœus for using Latin words not 

 in Cicero's works, by saying that they might have been had Ci(;ero written a system of 

 botany. So Dr. Johnson and the other Litchfield authorities might have been careful to 

 preserve the vernacular plant-names if they had been compiling an English Dictionary 

 instead of aiming at a literal translation of a concise Latin book. 



^a 



22. — Ranunculus Lapponicus, Linnœus. 



Leaves glabrous, the radical ones few, long-petioled, tripartite, the lobes dilated, 

 obtuse, coarsely toothed ; scape 1-flowered, usually naked, longer than the leaves ; calyx of 

 3 reflected sepals. 



Ranunculus Lapponicus. Linn. Sp. PI., p. WS. Smith, in Fl. Lapponica, ed. 2. p. 194, 

 t. 3, f 4. DC. Syst. Nat. I., p. 2*71. Prod., I., p. 35. Hook., Parry's 3rd Voy. App., p. 121. 

 Fl. Bor.-Am., I., p. 16. Hook. & Arn., Bot. Beechey, p. 121. Fl. Dan., t. 2292. Persoon, 

 Synops., II., p. 104, No. 42. 



Mossy woods in the eastern and central districts, and from lat. 50' to the Arctic Sea. 

 Mountain swamps, eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains, lat. 52° to 5t°. — Drummond. 

 Whale Islands in the Arctic Sea. — Lieut. Ross. A rare plant, being A^ery alpine or A'ery 

 Arctic. — Hooker. Mossy swamps along the base of the Porcupine Mountains, Manitoba ; 

 swamp near St. Albert at Edmonton, N. W.T. : swamps along Little Stone Lake, N. W. T. ; 

 and in numerous swamps iu northern British Columbia. — -Macoun. Kotzebue Soimd. 

 — Rothrock. Prince Arthur's Landing, ThiTuder Bay. — Rev. J. K. McMorine, (Macoun.) 

 Near McLeod Lake, British Columbia, 22ud June, 18t5. — Mncoun, in Herb. Canad. 

 Survey. East shore of Baffin Bay (Avest coast of Greenland), — extreme north and south 



