RANUNCULUS I9 



between Radley and Abingdon, wliere it occurs in considerable 

 quantity. 



4. Kennet. Found in a watery, boggy place at Hoe Benham, grow- 



ing with R. Fkimmiila, Miss Boiven. (I have not seen specimens.) 



5. Loddon. Cookham by the water called the Strand, Mill. 



The rarity of this plant in the marshy meadows near Oxford and 

 the Kennet valley is remarkable. 



Hooker describes the plant as glabrous ; but some plants near Abing- 

 don are distinctly hairy (var. Jiirsutus, Wallr. Sched. Crit. 288), and 

 in most cases the leaves have hairs, which are closely adpressed. 



In the Flore du Centre de la France of 1857, Boreau pointed out that the 

 radical leaves which are produced under the surface of the water have 

 long peduncles, and are cordiform-oval in shape. 



R. Lingua does not appear to be recorded for East Gloucester, but it 

 occurs in the other bordering counties. 



R. acris, Linn. Sp. PI. 554 (1753). Buttercup, Meadow Croivfoot. 



R. pratensis eredus acris, C. B. Pin. 178. 



Top. Bot. 13. Syme, E. B. i. 37, t. 33. Nyman, 12. Baxt. t. 302. Fl. 



Oxf. 5. 

 Native. Pratal. Meadows and pastures, abundant and generally 



distributed. P. April-August. 

 First record. R. acris. Very common in meadows and pastures, 

 Mavor's Agr. Berks, 271 (1809). Under the above name we have in 

 Berkshire a varj-ing series of forms. 



Var. Steveni (Andi-z. in Bess. Enum. PI. Volh. 22 (1821}, as a species). 



This is our common Meadow Buttercup, and when typical may be 

 recognized from other forms of R. acris by its long fleshy rhizome, 

 covered above with the remains of the bases of former petioles. The 

 leaves ^re covered with shining pubescence. The form of this which 

 is more common w4th us, if indeed it be not the only one, is the plant 

 described as R. vulgatus, Jord. in Boreau, Fl. du Centre Fr. 15 (1857). 



Var. BoRAEANUs (Jord. Obs. Pi. Crit. 6 (1847), 19^ as a species). 



This is the true R. acris as restricted by Austrian botanists, and is 

 distinguished by its stout, compact, erect, and premorse rhizome, the 

 offshoots of which are sessile or connected only by a short j)erpen- 

 dicular sobole. 



With us in the north of the county this is comparatively a rare 

 form ; but it is more frequent in the light soils of the south. It occurs 

 in the Ock district near Frilford and in the Loddon district about 

 Loddon Bridge, near Farley Hill, at Arborfield, near Finchampstead, 

 Swinley, Ascot, &c. It has the leaves cut into narrower segments than 

 R. Steveni, and is a rather more graceful plant. Prof. A Kerner von 

 Marilaun, to whom I am indebted for the above description, says in 



C 2 



