26 RANUNCULACE^. Ranunculus. 



Lindh. i. 3 (not Ell.), excl. var. Lindheimeri, but iud. \&x. aiujustifolius. — Low grounds 

 Louisiana, Langlois, and Texas ; first coll. by Lindheimer. 



R. pusillus, PoiR. Stems 6 to 20 inches high, not rarely rooting from decumbent base : 

 carpels somewhat obovate, haK to three fourths Uue long, dull, smooth or irregularly some- 

 what papillose, rather numerous in a small globular head. — Diet. vi. 99 ; Fursh, Fl. ii. 392 ; 

 Deless. Ic. Sel. i. t. 28 ; EU. Sk. ii. 57 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 17, partly. R. Flammula, Walt. 

 Car. 159, not L. R. Intmilis, Pers. Syn. ii. 102. {R. Bonariensis, Poir. -1. c. 102, is very 

 near, and of no older date.) — Wet ground or iu shallow water, Staten Island, New York, to 

 Missouri and southward to Florida and Texas, along the low country. 



Var. Lindheimeri, Gray. A span or two high : akenes more papillose-roughish. — 

 Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 367. R. trachyspermus ? var. Lindheimeri, Engelm. in Graj', PI. 

 Lindh. i. 3 ; Torr. Pacif. E. Rep. iv. 62 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 7.^ — New Orleans, 

 Berlandier, no. 1939; Galveston, le-aa,?,, Lindheimer ; Napa Valley and San Rafael, Cali- 

 fornia, Bigelow, J. P. Moore. 

 = = Petals 5, bright yellow, 1 to 3 lines long, surpassing the calyx : stamens numerous. • 



R. oblongifolius, Ell. Mostly a foot or two high, paniculately branched, seldom root- 

 ing at base, seemingly annual : akenes rather few in a small globose head, globular or 

 turgid-lenticular, smooth or scabrous-puncticulate, only one third line long ; the small or 

 slender st3'le wholly deciduous. — Sk. ii. 58; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 41. R. Flaynmula , Michx. 

 Fl. i. 321. R. pusillus, var. ohlongifulius, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 17, R. Flammida, Yar. laxi- 

 caulis, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. le.'^ R. Texensis, Engelm. in Gray, PI. Lindh. i. 2. — Wet ground, 

 Illinois 3 and S. Carolina to Texas. 

 ++ ++ Akenes subulate-beaked (but the beak sometimes deciduous or reduced to an apiculus), 



smooth, in a globular head : j^etals as many as 5. 

 = Perennial by rooting from the lower nodes of ascending stems or from most of those of 



creeping stems : roots all fibrous and not thickened. 



a. Some lower cordate leaves. 



R. hydrocharoides, Gray. Amphibious, with erect or ascending flowering stems a span 

 or two higli, and elongated creeping branches from the base, these stout and fistulous or 

 sometimes slender : leaves all entire or nearly so (inch or less long), somewhat succulent, 

 chiefly long-petioled ; lower eitlier round-cordate or oval, or some like the uppermost 

 obovate or spatulate : petals 2 or 3 lines long, much surpassing the calyx : akenes iu a small 

 globose head, less than a line long, tipped with narrow and short abrupt beak. — PI. Thurb. 

 in Mem. Am. Acad. v. 306; Rothrock in Wheeler, Rep. vi. 56. — Marshes and springs, 

 S. W. Arizona, Thurher, J. D. Smith, Roihrock, Lemmon, the specimens of the last less snccu- 

 leut and rather longer-styled ; Owen's Valley, S. E. California, Kellogg, a slender form, with 

 small leaves and longer styles. 



R. STOLONiFER, Hcmsl. of Northern Mexico, much smaller-flowered, is related to this. 

 h. No cordate leaves, the radical ones at most oblong or ovate. — Spearwort. 



R. Flammula, L. No representative knowTi in N. America of the true species, which has 

 rather the habit of the next, with ascending stems rooting only at or near the base, a foot 

 or so high ; with lower leaves ovate-oblong to lanceolate and often rounded at base, not 

 rarely with serratures ; akenes small, with a small or minute beak, or the deciduous style 

 leaving only an apiculation. — Spec. i. 548 ; Fl. Dan. t. 575 ; Curt. Fl. Lond. vi. t. 36. — (Eu.) 

 Var. intermedius, Hook. Smaller: stems decumbent and creeping, often to a foot in 

 length : leaves all lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, entire or nearly so, inch or two long, 

 tapering into the petiole : jietals 2 or 3 lines long : akenes of the type or more beaked. — 

 Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 11 ; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 41, & Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 373. R. Flammula, var. 

 Unalaschensis, Ledeb. ace. to Regel, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxiv. pt 2, 41. R. reptans, var. 



1 Add syn. ? R. Biolettii, Greene, Pittonia, ii. 225, nearly from character, and fide K. Brandegee, 

 Zee, iv. 81. 



2 Add syn. R. laxicaulis, Darby, Bot. S. St. 204. 



8 S. E. Missouri, Eggert, Bush, and Isle of Wight County, Virginia, ace. to Heller, Bull. Torr. 

 Club, xxi. 22. 



