Ranunculus. RANUNCULACE^. 2? 



intermedins, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 16. — Shore of Lake Ontario ^ to California and Oregon and 

 northward. (N. Asia, Eu.) Largest forms from western coast, nearly approaching the 

 type ; very slender and linear-leaved as well as small broader-leaved forms pass into 



Var. reptans, E. Meyer. Small, wholly creeping: stems filiform, a span or two long: 

 leaves with blade from 2 lines to an inch long, from linear to spatulate or lanceolate : petals 

 about 2 lines long : akenes with more conspicuous and subulate oftener curved beak, or 

 sometimes merely apiculate-beaked as in the type. — PI. Labr. 96 ; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 41 ; 

 Eeichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. iii. t. 10. R. reptans, L. Spec. i. 549 (El. Lapp. t. 3, f. 5) ; El. Dan. 

 t. 108, &c. R. reptans, vax. filiformis, DC. Syst. i. 248; Torr. & Gray, I.e. 16. R.JiUformis, 

 Michx. El. i. 320 ; Bart. El. N. A. ii. t. 70. R. Flammula, \a.i:Ji/i/orniis, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 

 i. 11. — Gravelly borders of ponds and pools. New England to Penn., and westward in the 

 mountains of Colorado and Utah, to California, and north to arctic Alaska and Hudson 

 Bay. (Greenland, N. Eu., N. Asia.) 

 R, ambigens, Watson. Eobust, 2 feet high, erect from a decumbent rooting base : leaves 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, often serrulate, 3 or 4 inches long by 4 to 10 lines wide, 

 mostly much longer than the dilated half-clasping petiole : petals oblong, 2 or 3 lines long : 

 akenes a line long, obliquely oval, compressed, tipped with erect-incurved narrow-subulate 

 beaks of fully or more than half their length. — Proc. Am. Acad. xiv. 289, & Bibl. Index, 

 16. R. Flammula, & R. Lingua, Punsh, Fl. ii. 391, and of all the older Am. botanists. 

 R. Flammula, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 16, excl. var. R. alismcefolius, Benth. PI. Hartw. 295, as to 

 eastern plant; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 41, not Geyer.2 — Li wet grassy places. New England to 

 Illinois,^ south to the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia, and north to Canada. The 

 Amer. analogue of R. Lingua. 



= = Strictly perennial, terrestrial, more or less tufted, with thickened-fibrous and fascicled 



roots : stems mostly short and erect, or assurgent, not at all rooting from nodes : mature 



akenes turgid (a line or more long), with introrsely apical or subapical and rather short 



subulate beak. 



R. alismsefolius, Geyer. Commonly robust, a span to a foot high, simple or branching: 



leaves lanceolate to oblong, mostly tapering into margined or base-dilated petioles, or upper 



subsessile, entire (sometimes obscurely repand-denticulate), thickish, 2 to 4 inches long and 



a quarter to full inch wide : petals broadly obovate, a third to half inch long, generally large 



and showy : akenes glabrous and smooth, in a globose or hemispherical head. — Geyer in 



Benth. PI. Hartw. 295, as to Pacif. pi. only, the fruit not then known ; Wats. Proc. Am. 



Acad. xiv. 289 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 6. R. Flammula, Hook. Lond. Jour. Bot. vi. 



66. R. Bolanderi, Greene, Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. ii. 58.* — Marshes from borders of Brit. 



Columbia and Colorado to central parts of California ; first coll. and distinguished by Gei/er. 



Var. alismellus, Gray. Usually much more slender, 4 to 10 inches high: leaves 



thinner, with blade half inch to 2 inches long, from oblong-lanceolate to ovate, or radical 



even cordate and on long slender petioles : flowers smaller : petals only 3 lines long. — 



Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 327, viii. 372 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 6. R. alismcefolius, var. 



montanus, Wats. Bot. King Exp. 7, one of the intermediate forms.^ — Same range,^ but 



subalpine, and in the Rocky Mountains, from Wyoming to Utah and Colorado. {R. Pseudo- 



Hirculus, Schrenk, of Asia, is quite distinct and probably an entire-leaved form of R. pul- 



chellus.) 



1 Eastward to St. John's, Newfoundland, Robinson & Schrenk. Add syn. Jl. reptans, var. strigu- 

 losus, Freyn, Deutsche Bot. Monatsschr. viii. 181. 



2 Add as doubtful syn. R. ohtusiusculus, Pvaf. in Desv. Journ. Bot. !. 225 (1808). A tracing from 

 Rafinesque's figure of his plant shows a slender straiglit erect stem and single annual root, also linear- 

 lanceolate sepals, all at variance with the stout decumbent commonly geniculate and copiously rooting 

 stem and ovate sepals of the present species. 



3 Westward to Springfield, Missouri, Blnnkinship. 



4 Aiid syu. R. calthaflorus, & R. Hartwegi, Greene, Ei-ythea, iii. 45. The R. alismcefolius of 

 Geyer was properly defined by Watson, 1. c. considerably before tlie publication of Prof. Greene's 

 synonyms, and the Rocky Mountain and Pacific forms do not appear to have any satisfactory specific 

 distinctions. 



5 Add syn. R. alismellus, Greene, Fl. Francis. 297, & i?. Poindago, Greene, Erythea, iii. 19, tlie 

 form of S. W. Oregon and Idaho with rather broad cordate radical leaves. 



6 Southward in California to San Jacinto Mountains, Basse, ace. to Parish, Zoe, iv. ICl. 



