SPERMATOPHYTA— RANUNCULACEAE 



457 



Fig. 230. Virgin's Bower (Cle- 

 matis virginiana). Probably poison- 

 ous. (From Johnson's Medical 

 Botany of N. A.) 



Fig. 231. Clematis, Virgin's Bower (Clematis 

 Pitcheri). The flowers are dull purplish in color; 

 the plant is more or less acrid. (Ada Hayden.) 



6. Ranunulucus (Tourn.) L. Crowfoot Buttercup 



More or less acrid, annual or perennial, herbs with alternate, simple, lobed, 

 divided, or dissected leaves ; solitary or somewhat corymbed flowers, yellow, 

 white or red; sepals 5; petals S with a nectariferous pit or si ale at the base; 

 stamens numerous; pistils numerous; achenes numerous in heads, generally 

 flattened or pointed with an erect seed, tipped with the style. About 200 

 species in temperate and colder regions. 



Ranunculus sceleratus L. Ditch Crowfoot 



A glabrous annual, 1 foot or more high, stem hollow; root leaves 3-lobed, 

 rounded; stem leaves 3-parted, the lobes cut and toothed; upper leaves nearly 

 entire; flowers pale yellow, petals but slightly longer than the calyx; stamens 

 numerous ; pistils numerous, in oblong and cylindrical heads. 



Distribution. Wet ditches in the Northern States; also in Europe. 



Poisonous nature. The plant is highly acrid, blistering the mouth and skin. 

 In Europe it is used by beggars for making sores. Other species with similar 

 properties are R. acris, R. bulbosus, and R. rcpens. 



Ranunculus septentrionalis, Poir. Creeping Crowfoot 



A low, hairy, or nearly smooth, glabrous perennial ; ascending, or often 

 producing long runners ; leaves with 3-stalked divisions, the terminal one broadly 



