CANADIAN EANUNCULACBtE. 65 



Kingston Mills, only cue small patch, 1843 ; also Chippewa and Maiden.— Dr. P. W, 

 Maclagan. Near Toronto, June 2nd, 1862, and near Trenton, Ont., June 6th, 1862 ; also on 

 hilly ground in the vale of Trent, above the village. — Lmvson. Trenton depot ; on commons 

 east from Belleville and on hill above Belleville; Niagara Falls. — Macoim. Hamilton, 

 Out, — Logie. Common east of London, Ont, — Saunders. 



39. ^Ranunculus bulbosus, Linncms. 



Root of uniform fibres, descending from the large bulbous base of the stem, the bulb 

 depressed-globular. Radical leaves composed of three stalked leaflets, which are tripartite, 

 the segments trifid and cut, divisions of the upper leaves narrower, linear. Stem erect, 

 about a foot high, furrowed, several flowered. Sepals reflexed, thin and semi-transparent 

 at the base, receptacle hairy, petals of a golden yellow as in R. repeiis. The stem never 

 throws out suckers. The year's bulb is formed immediately above the bulb of the previous 

 year, which is found in a partially decayed state under the new one. Bulbous Croio-foot, 

 Buttercup, Gold Cup. 



Ranunculus bulbosus. Linn. Sp. Plant., p. Y'TS. Withering, Arrangement of Brit. Pts., 

 IL, p. 508. Willd., IL, p. 1324. Poiret, Diet., VI., p. 115. Eng. Bot., t. 515. DC. Syst. 

 Nat., I., p. 295. Prodromus, I., p. 41. Smith, Eng. FL, III., p. 49. Persoon, Synops., I., 

 p. 104. Flora Danica., t. 55. Michaux, FL, I., p. 321. Pursh, Fl., IL, p. 392. Hook., 

 Fl. Bor.-Am., L, p. 21. Torr. and Gray, FL, I., p. 24. Gr. Manual, ed. 5, p. 43. "Wood, 

 CI. Bk. and FL, p. 20*7. Chapman, Fl. S. U.S., p. 8. Lawson, Ranunc. Canad., p. 85. 

 Provancher, Fl. Canad., p. 12. Watson, Bibl. Index, I., p. 18. Macoun, Cat., No. 46. 

 Hook, f., Student's FL, p. 8. Watson, Cybele Brit., I., p. 88. Alton f., Hort. Kew., III., p. 

 356. Loudon, Hort. Brit., p. 231. Mag. Nat. Hist., I., p. 380 (figure of double bulb). 



This is an old world plant, native in middle and southern Europe and in parts of 

 north Africa and of Asia. In Europe it grows chiefly in warm dry grass fields, pastures, 

 and by waysides. On the American Continent it has become naturalized, being " very 

 abundant only in E. New England ; rare in the interior." (Gray.) First found in Canada 

 by Ladi/ Dalhousie. Newfoundland. — Morrison. (Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am.) Roadsides near Lon- 

 don, Out. — Dr. Burgess, in Herb. Canad. Survey. Point Pleasant Park, Halifax, N.S., July, 

 1884. — Rev. Robt. Laing. Near Shelburne, Nova Scotia. — Rev. Mr. Rossborough. Also found 

 in pastures near Barrie, Ont. — Spoffen. And near Hamilton, Ont. — Buchan. Canadian 

 specimens are rather taller and more lax than the ordinary state of the plant as found in 

 Scotland. Whilst abundant in England and the south of Scotland, this species is rare or 

 altogether absent in the north, and does not rise to any great altitude on the mountains, the 

 highest station apparently being 1500 feet in Aberdeenshire, where H. C. Watson regarded 

 it as not indigenous but possibly introduced. In Canada it has probably been brought 

 with grass or clover seeds from Southern Europe, but now appears to be permanently 

 established in several localities. 



The name Ramincidus bulbosus, now in use by botanists for this plant, dates back to a 

 period long anterior to the reformation of botanical nomenclature by Linnœus, having been 

 applied to it by Thalius in the " Sylva Hercynia," published at Frankfort in 1588. About 



Sec. IV., 1884. 9. 



