24 RANUNCULACEiE. Rcmunculus. 



ScMecht. Animad. Ranimc. i. 23, t. 4, f. 1,^ the diminutive and chiefly liigh northern form, 

 var. ALpfNUS, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 11. — Moist and brackish soil, arctic sea-coast and along 

 the coast to New Jersey, and at salt springs in the interior, along the Rocky Mountain 

 region and westward to California. (Greenland, N. & Centr. Asia, Mex., S. Anier.) 



§ 6. EuRANUNCULUS. Petals yellow or in few species white, with nectarifer- 

 ous spot or pit covered by a scale on the claw, deciduous : sepals 5, sometimes 

 3 or 4, deciduous : carpels in fruit coriaceous or crustaceous akenes, filled by the 

 seed or nearly so, usually more or less compressed, the sides nerveless. 

 * Petals white (8 or 10) : sepals 3 or 4. 



R. Pallasii, Schlecht. Creeping perennial, glabrous : stems and elongated petioles thick 

 and fistulous : leaves with short blade from linear to oblong, obtuse and entire, or some 

 cuneate and 2-3-lobed : petals quarter to half inch long, obovate : akenes thin-crustaceous, 

 2 lines long or more, tipped with a small short beak. — Animad. Ranunc. i. 15, t. 2 ; Hook. Fl. 

 Bor.-Am. i. 10 ; Seem. Bot. Herald, 22, R. Pallassii, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 17. — In shallow 

 water, arctic Alaska, and Islands, Pallas, Chamisso, Seemann, Murdoch, &c. Also Labrador, 

 fide Ascherson, but doubtful. (Arct. E. Asia, Lapland.) 



* * Petals yellow, commonly 5 (3-16 in certain species). 



—1- Amphibious aquatics, with dissected leaves, when submersed capillary-multifid in the 

 manner of § Batrachium : perennial by fibrous-rooting from the nodes : akenes smooth. 



R. multifidus, Pursh. Polymorphous, fibrous-rooting : the well developed ])lant aquatic, 

 with submersed or floating elongated fistulous stems : leaves, inch or two long, all teruately 

 decompound into narrow filiform or capillary divisions, flaccid, or some small uppermost 

 emersed and 5-7 -parted into cuneate lobes : flowers showy : petals 5 to 8, broadly obovate, 

 deep golden yellow, 4 to 6 lines long : akenes obliquely ovate, rather turgid, when ripe sub- 

 erose-thickened at base and ventral edge, tipped with a straight and compressed subulate 

 beak of half their length. — Fl. ii. 736 ; DC. Syst. i. 270 ; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 40, not Forsk., 

 which being quite obscure may rest as R. Forska'/ilii, DC. R. fluviatilis, Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 

 1, 139, not Willd. R. lacustris, Beck & Tracy, N. Y. Med. & Phys. Journ. ii. 112, & Trans. 

 Alb. Inst. i. 148, t. 5.^ R. Purshii, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 15, as to vars. a & fi, t. 7,B. \ ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 19, as to vars. o & )3. R. Beckii, Don, Syst. 1. 39. R. Purshii, var. 

 (iquatiUs, Ledeb. Fl. Ross. i. 35. — In stagnant or slow-flowing water, Atlantic States from 

 N. Carolina northward to N. Canada, Brit. Columbia, California, &c. (Siberia.) 



Var.* terrestris, Grat.^ Under this may be collected the series of forms of shallow 

 water or wet soil, which creep, rooting in the mud, with shorter stems, emersed coarsely 

 dissected leaves, round-reniform and once to thrice parted or cleft into more or less cuneate 

 lobes : flowers and fruit often somewhat smaller ; also autumnal forms in exsiccated beds of 

 ponds, with ascending stems and broadish lobes to the leaves, these usually pubescent. — 

 Man. ed. 5, 41, & Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 366 (where as in ms. of present work the following 

 species was included). ? i?. Missouriensis, Greene, Erj-thea, iii. 20. — With the typical 

 form, and not very common. To be distinguished from the following, which it closely 

 simulates in foliage, by its larger akenes with a tumid suberose border about the base and 

 tipped with a longer flatter style. 



R.* Purshii, Richards. Creeping upon muddy banks : leaves small, 4 to 9(to 12) lines in 

 diameter, circular in outline, 3-5- or many-cleft into linear segments (filiform dissected 

 leaves very rarely present) : flowers small, seldom over 5 lines in diameter : heads of fruit 

 as well as the akenes themselves considerably smaller than in the preceding, the latter desti- 

 tute of any distinct turgid margin and tipped with a slender style. — Richards, in Frankl. 

 1st Journ. ed. 2, App. 751 (reprint, ]>. 23), var. a ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 15, as to vars. y & 5, 

 t. 7, B. 2 & 3 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 19, as to vars. 7 & S. R. Gmvlini, DC. Syst. i. 303 (R. 



1 Add syn. Cyrtorliynclm Cymhalnria, Britten, Mem. Torr. Club, v. 161. 



2 Greene, Pittonia, ii. 62; C. A. Davis, Bot. Gaz. xvi. 115. Add also syn. R. delphinifolius, Torr. 

 in Eaton, Man. ed. 2, 395, not HBK. 



3 Tliis variety lias been limited by the editor to exclude the following species. 



