42 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 
Creeping Buttercup; indeed, it is not unoften to be 
found growing actually in water in a ditch where 
frogs abound, and might be regarded as a further 
example of a transitional form of buttercup leading 
on to the Water Buttercups. 
A ditch is certainly the best place in which to 
search for it, and as it grows low down in such places, 
many will be the nettle stings the beginner will 
receive before he succeeds in collecting his specimen 
of this retiring crowfoot. 
The name crowfoot, by the way, is given to most 
buttercups on account of the three-fold division) of 
the leaf, like the expanded toes of a crow. 
When not growing in a ditch the Creeping Crow- 
foot is found on damp banks or in hollows by the 
wayside, or in fields or woods where moisture 
abounds. In this respect it differs from the Bulbous 
Crowfoot, with which it is often confounded. Ihave 
often stumped the beginner with the right names of 
these two plants, as they are not unlike, and unless 
one carries the distinctions clearly in one’s head one 
may easily consider they apply to the other of the 
two. Inthe Bulbous Crowfoot the sepals are reflexed ; 
in this one they are erect or nearly so. In both the 
peduncle is furrowed, whereas in the Upright 
Meadow Crowfoot it is not. Moreover, the bulbous 
crowfoot is provided with a bulbous stem below 
which is much sought after by rooks in the field. 
It grows besides in drier places. The Creeping Crow- 
foot has also a decumbent stem, with runners, and a 
