30 ' RANUNCULACE.E. Ranunculus. 



King Exp. 9. — High Rocky Mountains of Colorado, first coll. by Parry, and of the Wasatch, 

 S. Utah, first coll. by Watson, Well developed in wet places along streamlets in the lower 

 part of alpine region, where it becomes procumbent. Ou drier soil it is often coarser-leaved, 

 much smaller fiowered, and with longer carpel-heads, having a narrow receptacle of even 

 hdlf inch in length. 

 = == = = Leaves mostly cleft or more divided, roundish radical undivided ones, when 



present, at least crenate or dentate : akenes turgid or lenticular, marginless. 

 a. Montane or high northern species, truly perennials, with fibrous or slightly thickened 



roots : flowers with conspicuous and pretty large petals, except sometimes in R. affinls. 



1. Head of carpels in fruit globular or oval : styles elongated but usually only subulate base 

 persistent as a short beak or apiculus on the lenticular akeue. 



R. Arizonicus, Lemmon. A foot or less high, glabrate or above glabrous, below usually 

 with some soft villous hairs : fascicled roots more or less thickened : stems slender and naked 

 above, several-many-flowered : radical leaves round-cordate or sometimes cordate-oblong and 

 strongly crenate-dentate, or later ones about 5-cleft and the segments 3-5-lobed ; cauline 

 once or twice 3-parted into narrow linear divisions : petals (sometimes 6 or 7, 3 to 5 lines 

 long) oblong or at first obovate : akenes lenticular and with thin acute margin, lightly 

 pubescent, commonly in a small globular head, having a subulate receptacle. — Lemmou 

 in Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 370. R. affinis, Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 29, in part ; Iloth- 

 rockin Wheeler, Rep. vi. 57. — Mountains of S. Arizona, Writjht (837 ),i Lew;« oh, among rocks, 

 &c. Also Willow Spring, Arizona, Rothrock, a form connecting with the second variety. 



Var. SUbaffinis, Gray, 1. c. A dwarf and alpine form, simulating R. affinis, mostly 

 1-flowered, with thickish oval head of akenes : these densely pubescent, almost equalled by 

 the subulate style.^ — On Mount Agassiz, of the San Francisco Mountains, at 12,000 feet, 

 Lemmon. 



Var. SUbsagittatus, Gray, 1. c. Rather stout, villous with a deciduous pubescence, 

 simple-stemmed and fewer-flowered : radical leaves mainly subcordate-obloug or somewliat 

 sagittate, thick; the middle nerves approximate : petals broadly obovate, half inch or less 

 long : head of akenes stouter, oval. — N. Arizona, in Delavergne Park of the San Francisco 

 Mountains, Lemmon ; in wet ground. 



R. Suksdorfii, Gray. A span or less high, glabrous, with slender 1-3-flowered stems: 

 leaves small (half inch or more long) subreuiform or broadly flabelliform with truncate 

 base, deeply 3-5-cleft or parted, the radical into cuneate 3-5-cleft or incised divisions, those 

 of the upper cauline linear : petals round-obovate, refuse, a third to half inch long, deep 

 yellow : akenes glabrous, turgid-lenticular, acutish-edged, surmounted by a nearly filiform 

 style of equal length (three fourths line), which is at length apparently deciduous: the 

 head globular. — Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 371. — Damp ground on Mount Adams, Washington, 

 at 6,000-7,000 feet, Sidsdorf; also, wet alpine meadows in Blue Mountains, E. Oregon, at 

 toward 8,000 feet, Cusicl>:, with young akenes in more oblong head, not yet turgid, obscurely 

 piiliescent ; 3 fl. July, August. 



2. Head of carpels in fruit oljlong or cylindraceous : akenes more turgid and rounded or at 

 least obtuse on the back. 



? R.* eximius, Greene. " Radical leaves very few, often one only, on a short stout petiole 

 1 to 2 inches long ; the blade of cuneate-obovate or almost flabelliform outline, deeply aboiit 

 7-lobed at the broad summit, otherwise entire ; upper cauline leaves sessile, broadly cuneiform, 

 1 inch long, cleft to the middle into about 5 lanceolate or broadly linear lobes : periphery of 

 the expanded large corolla quite circular by the overlap])ing of the numerous broadly 

 obovate or almost obcordate yellow petals." — Erythea, iii. 19. — Mountains of Colorado to 

 Idaho. Flowers large as in /?. adonens, but foliage so close to forms of the preceding and 

 following species as to make its specific distinctness still doubtful, especialh' in the absence 

 of mature fruit. No authenticated specimens having been seen by the editor, the descrijjtion 

 is here drawn from the original characterization. 



1 Also at the Copper Mines, New Mexico, TImrber, no. 231. 



2 Insert syn. R. Arizonicus, Greene, Pittouia, ii. 60, not Lemmon. R. subsagittatus, var. subaffinis, 

 Greene, 1. c. 110. 



8 Mt. Rainier, 0. D. Allen ; Olympic Mts., Henderson. 



