32 RANUKCULACE^. Ranunculus. 



leaves equalling the flowers. R. auricomiis, var. Cassuhicus, E. Mej^er, PI. Lab. 96. — 

 Labrador and Lower Cauada to prairies of Wisconsin and N. Illinois, Saskatchewan, and 

 the N. Rocky Mountains, lat. 52°-55°.i 



b. Pacific coast species, large-flowered, long-styled, thickish-rooted perennial. 

 R. Bloomeri Watson. Glabrous or sometimes sparsely villous or hirsute : stems ascend- 

 ing from a fascicle of thickened fibrous roots, a foot or two long, robust, sparsely flowered : 

 leaves bright green and lucid, coarsely dentate or incised ; radical loug-petioled, some 

 broadly cordate or ovate and iucisely crenate-dentate or obscurely lobed (2 inches long), 

 some 3-parted, some 3-foliolate with the leaflets petiolulate and the terminal one even 3-lobed ; 

 cauliue not very dissimilar, short-petioled : petals haK inch long, emarginate : akenes turgid, 

 2 lines long, glabrous, tipped Math a slender subulate beak. — Bot. Calif, ii. 426. R. Chilensis, 

 Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. 134 1 not 4. — Low grounds, about San Francisco Bay ; first coll. 

 by Bloomer. 



c. Chiefly eastern or cosmopolite, small-flowered, few-stamened, very short-styled ; with 

 compressed and small beakless or very short-beaked or (in R. Allegheniensis) hook-styled 

 akenes : stems erect and branching. 



R. abortivus, L. Biennial or short-lived perennial, slender, a foot or two high, generally 

 quite glabrous and lucid, occasionally pubescent : radical leaves or most of them round- 

 reniform or oblate-subcordate and simply or doubly creuate ; cauliue once or twice 3-parted 

 or divided into oblong or linear divisions : petals pale yellow, usually not over a line long 

 and shorter than the calyx : akenes lenticular, glabrous, in small globular or ovoid head. — 

 Spec. i. 5.51 ; Walt. Car. 159 ; DC. Syst. i. 268; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 19. R. nitldus, Walt. 

 1. c. ; Poir. Diet. vi. 126. — Moist woods and along streamlets, Newfoundland ^ to Florida, 

 Arkansas, and the mountains of Colorado, northwestward to the head-waters of Fraser 

 River, &c. in Brit. Columbia ; fi. spring. Passes freely into 



Var. micranthus, Gray.^ Slightly or conspicuously villous : some or most of 

 radical leaves 3-parted, some 3-foliolate and leaflets even slender-petiolulate. — Man. ed. 5, 

 42. R. micranthus, Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 18; Eugelm. Am. Journ. Sci. xlvi. 94. — 

 Massachusetts to Saskatchewan and Colorado. 



Var. Harveyi, Gray. Somewhat pubescent : leaves, &c. of the type or of the preced- 

 ing variety : petals conspicuous, 3 lines long, very much surpassing the calyx ! — Proc. Am. 

 Acad. xxi. 372.* — On damp rocks, common in Arkansas, F. L. Harvei/, Dr. Hasse.^ 

 R.* Allegheniensis, Britton. Habit and foliage closely as in the typical form of the 

 preceding species : stem glaucous, not lucid : akenes a little larger and flatter, slightly 

 margined dorsally or at least toward the apex, and provided with a well developed and 

 strongly recurved style ; the latter a third as long as the akenes. — BuU. Torr. Club, xxii. 

 224. R. abortu-us, form, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 15. — Mountains of North Carolina and 

 Virginia, Britton, Heller; E. Massachusetts, at Waverly, Fernald, Greenman, Schrenk ; 

 Woburn, Robinson ; Cambridge, Deane. Intermediate stations in tlie Middle States will 

 doubtless be found as soon as the plant is generally distinguished from the habitally similar 

 R. abortivus, of which it may yet prove only an extreme variation, as regarded by Sir 

 William Hooker. 



1 Black Hills, S. Dak., Fonvood. 



2 Labrador, Waghome. 



3 Tliis variety has been recently restored to specific rank by Mr. E. P. Bicknell (Bull. Torr. Club, 

 xxi. 41), and among other distinctions attention is called to tlie usually glabrous receptacle, that of 

 the typical R. ab»rtiviis being hispid. While in their extremes the two plants appear quite different, 

 dubious iutenuediates are not lacking. The variety extends to Gaspe file Macoun. 



4 Add. syn. It. abortiv^is, var. grandiflorus, Engelm. ace. to Branner & Coville, Ark. Geol. Surv. 

 iv. 162; Harvey, Bull. Torr, Club, xix. 93. B. Harveyi, Britton, Mem. Torr, Club, v. 159; Greene, 

 Erythea, ii. 189. The specific distinctions, adduced by Prof. Greene from the akenes do not appear 

 to hold, since in some specimens of tlie small-flowered typical form the akenes are in a globular head 

 and when mature are quite as large and no more numerous. Nor is the difference of tlie roots more 

 constant or significant. Regarding the size of the petals some of Dr. Hasse's specimens preserved in 

 the Nat. Herbarium furnish transition to the smaller-flowered form. 



6 Also common in S. Missouri, ranging to St. Louis, Basse, Bush. 



