786 RANUNCULUS. [CLASS XIII. ORDER III. 



English Botany, t. 308.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 43.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed, 4. vol. i. p. 218.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 9. 



Root tapering, with branched fibres. Stem erect, from one to two 

 feet high, smooth, furrowed, branched and leafy, sometimes rather 

 downy. Leaves alternate, pinnatifid, very numerously divided into 

 linear acute smooth segments, of a dark green, the lower on channeled 

 footstalks, the upper sessile. Flotvers solitary, terminating the branches, 

 about half an inch across, of a fine dark shining crimson. Calyx of 

 five spreading sub-membranous ovale obtuse smooth pieces. Petals 

 from six to eight or ten, ovate, heart-shaped, concave, connivancing 

 into a globe-shaped flower, claw short, and usually with a dark spot 

 above it. Stamens numerous, with rather stout while filaments^ curved 

 upwards. Anthers ovale, dark purple, of two cells. Stf/les short, 

 spreading, with a simple spreading stigma. Capsules small, nume- 

 rous, roundish, smooth, reticulated, with a short beak formed by the 

 persistent style, collected into an ovate head. 



Habitat. — Corn fields in various parts of England, but not common ; 

 about Glasgow, Scotland ; and Dublin, in Ireland. 



Annual ; flowering from May to October. 



The Pheasant's Eye is very frequent in corn fields on the Continent, 

 where also other species are found ; but with us this seems rather a 

 naturalized than an aboriginal plant. It flowers freely during the 

 summer months, but is not a very showy plant. By cultivation the 

 stamens are sometimes expanded into petals, but from its spreading 

 much branched stems and many leaves it is not a very favourite border 

 flower. 



GENUS XXII. RANUN'CULUS— Linn. Crowfoot. 

 Nat. Ord. RANUNCULA'cE^ffi. De Cand. 



Gen. Char. Calyx of three to five pieces. Petals five to many, the 

 claw with a nectariferous gland, naked, or furnished with a scale. 

 Carpels numerous, ovate, sub-compressed, with a mucronated 

 apex, smooth, striated, tuberculated, or spinous, and collected into 

 a head. — Named from Pana, a froy ; on account of many of the 

 species delighting to grow in wet or damp places where frogs 

 abound. 



* Pericarps transversely wrinkled ; petals white, the claw marked with 

 a yelloiv nectariferous spot. 

 1. R. hedera'ceuSf Linn. (Fig. 893.) Ivy. leaved Cvoivfoot. Stem 



creeping; leaves all roundish, kidney-shaped, three to five lobed ; 



petals small, scarcely longer ihan the calyx; stamens five to twelve 5 



carpels smooth. 



