12 WILD, OR NATIVE FLOWERS 



Tai.l Buttercup — Ranunculus acris, (L.) 



We see the old familiar meadow-flower of our childhood bright and 

 gay, growing abundantly in low, wet pasture lands in Canada, where it 

 becomes to the eye of the farmer a troublesome, unprofitable weed, 

 rejected by the cattle for its bitter acrid qualities. Yet it is pleasant ta 

 meet its old familiar face in a foreign land, where often the sight of some 

 simple flower will awaken tender recollections of early scenes of sunny 

 grassy meadows, where we wandered in days of thoughtless childhood,, 

 free of care as the Lark that carolled above our heads in the glad 

 sunshine; happy days brought back, in all their freshness, to memory 

 by the sight of a simple yellow Buttercup blossoming in Canadian wilds 

 and wastes : despised and rejected by others, but precious to the heart 

 of the lonely immigrant who hails it as a tiny link between himself and 

 his early home life. 



Early C rowfoot — Ranunculus fascicularis, ( Muhl. ) 



This native species of Ranunculus is one of our earliest spring 

 flowers. It grows low and spreading to the ground, the foliage, hairy, 

 which gives a hoary tint to the divided coarsely cut leaves ; the blossoms 

 are of a pale yellow colour, not as large as the common Buttercup. 

 The root is a cluster of thick, fleshy fibres. 



One of the prettiest of the Ranunculus family is the 



Creeping Spear-wort — Ranunculus reptans, (Gray.) 



a tiny delicate plant, with slender thready stems rooting from beneath 

 the joints. The leaves are very narrow, and pointed, those nearest to the 

 root a little lobed or eared. The little bright, golden, shining flowers, 

 only a few lines broad, are borne in the axils of the leaves of the 

 prostrate creeping stems, and peep out from the sandy soil among tufts 

 of minute hairy sedges {Eleocharis acicularis) that clothe the damp 

 low-lying shores of rivers or lakes. There are several Water Crow foots, 

 some with white flowers, others with yellow. These flowers float upon 

 the surface of still-flowing rivers or lakes, gently rising or falling with the 

 motion of the waters. The beautiful adaptation of plants to soil and 

 circumstances may be noticed in these and some other aquatic plants 

 which have their foliage dissected into narrow segments, so that the 

 water may freely flow through them. Of the water Ranunculi, we may 

 mention \\'hite Water Crowfoot {R. aquatilis) and Yellow Water Crow- 

 foot (A', niultifidiis). 



There are among our native Ranunculus flowers a few plants of 

 which the outward beauties of their blossoms are better known to us 



