Ranunculus. RANUNCULACEiE. 29 



Bor.-Am.i — Mountains and valleys from Montana and Brit. Columbia to the Sierra Nevada, 

 California, and to the Koclcy Mountains through Colorado ; iirst coll. by Douijlus.'^ 

 R. digitatUS, Hook. Less than a span high, from a cluster of short and downwardly 

 tuberous-thickened roots: radical leaves eitlier entire and lanceolate or, like the few sub- 

 sessile cauline, 2-4-parted into oblong-lanceolate or almost linear lobes: petals (5 to 11) 

 spatulate-oblong, 3 to 5 lines long : carpels slender-styled ; akenes of the preceding or 

 smaller, in a several times smaller head. — Jour. Bot. & Kew Misc. iii. 124, t. 4 ; Wats. Bot. 

 King Exp. 8. — Mountains of S. Idaho, N. Nevada, Utah, &c. ; first coll. by Burke.^ 

 = = Leaves all palmately or pedately lobed or divided, small : akenes turgid-lenticular, 

 with acute or acuti.sh back, tipped with a small subulate beak : strictly arctic or alpine 

 perennials, fibrous-rooted from a short caudex, tufted, a span or less high, nearly glabrous 

 except that the peduncles are pubescent : flowers mostly solitary, not large, with rounded 

 petals little surpassing the calyx. 



R- pygmgeus, Wahl. An inch to a span high, with slender or weak one-flowered stems: 

 radical leaves simply or pedately 3-5cleft into roundish lobes, and cauline often 3-parted 

 into narrow ones : petals 2 lines long or less, little or not at all exceeding the sepals : akenes 

 hardly over half line long, in an oval or short-oblong head. — Fl. Lapp. 1.57, t. 8, f . 1 ; 

 Reichenb. Ic. PI. Crit. i. t. 2, f. 3-5; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 16; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 20. 

 R. Lapponicus, Fl. Dan. t. 144. R. Sabinii, R. Br. in Parry, 1st Voy. Suppl. to App. 264 ; Hook. 

 1. c. 17 , Torr. & Gray, 1. c 20. — Throughout arctic America to tlie polar seas, and on the high 

 Rocky Mountains southward to Wyoming and Colorado. (Arct. Asia & Eu., Greenland.) 

 R.* Grayi, Britton.* Stouter : radical and often the one or two cauline leaves biternately 

 or pedately divided and parted ; the primary divisions sometimes petiolulate, and the lobes 

 linear-oblong or spatulate : .stems 1-2-flowered : petals 3 lines long, surpassing the rounded 

 sparsely and finely villous sepals : akenes a line long, in a globular head. — Bull. Torr. Club, 

 xviii. 265. R. Hooker! , Regel, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxiv. pt. 2, 47 ; Wats. Bibl. Index, 19, 

 not Schlecht. R. pec/atijidus. Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 18, t. 8, not Smith nor Schlecht. — Sum- 

 mit of Rocky Mountains, on eastern side, between lat 52° and 55°, Dnimmond ; upper part of 

 Gray's Peak, Colorado, at 12,300 feet, Patterson, in flower and fruit.^ 



=^ == = Leaves all 2-4-ternately parted or divided into numerous narrow divisions (of 

 not over a line in width) : akenes turgid, subulate-beaked, dorsally marginless, smooth 

 and glabrous or nearly so : alpine or subalpine low perennials, with strong fibrous fascicled 

 roots and ascending stems bearing single or few large and showy flowers. 



R. triternatus, Gray. Roots fleshy-fibrous : leaves mostly triternately divided and parted ; 

 primary divisions loug-petiolulate, and lobes from filiform-linear (less than half line wide) 

 to liuear-spatulate (a line wide) and obtuse : petals broadly obovate (4 or 5 lines long) : 

 akenes very turgid, rounded on the back, slender-beaked ; the head globose with a thick 

 globular receptacle. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 370. — Klikitat Co., Washington, on high hills 

 near Goldendale, Howell, distributed under name of R. Hookeri. A very early flowering and 

 depressed form has broader radical leaves. 



R. adoneus, Gray. Roots of more slender fibres : stems a span or two high, some at 

 length decumbent or spreading : leaves mostly 2-3-ternately parted, with primary divisions 

 hardly if at all petiolulate, lol)es all narrowly linear and not widened upward : petals 

 (sometimes 6 or 8) rounded-flabelliform, often half inch long : akenes moderately compressed 

 and dorsally acutish, long-beaked with the straight subulate style ; the head globular to 

 oblong. — Proc. Acad. Philad. 1863, 56 ; Coulter, Man. Rocky Mt. Reg. 8. R. amteniis. Gray, 

 Am. Journ. Sci. ser. 2, xxxiii. 241, not Ledeb. R. orthorhynchus, var. alpinus, Wats. Bot. 



1 Add syn. R. ellipticus, Greene, Pittonia, ii. 110, a common form with elliptic-lanceolate radical 

 leaves and cleft cauline, said to occur at lower altitudes, but none of the distinctions prove constant. 



- A form with sparsely villous sepals lias been collected in S. Utah, Siler, being R.. Lemmoni, 

 Gray, in part, Jide S. Watson, Bot. Gaz. xvi. 346. 



3 Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, Dewart, Burglehaus. 



4 In the light of recent specimens, R. Hookeri, Schlecht., of Mexico, appears too well recognized to 

 permit the use of the later homonym of Regel, and the present species should be renamed as Prof. 

 Britton suggests. Prof. Greene's R. Drummondii (Erythea, ii. 192) is a needless synonym. 



6 Mountains near Ironton, S. II. Camp, at 13,000 feet. 



