Ranunculus. KANUNCULACE^. 33 



R. SCeleratUS, L. Annual or mostly so, somewhat sacculent, glabrous : radical and lower 

 cauliue leaves 3-5-lobed or parted and the lobes crenately incised or cleft (or when sub- 

 mersed reduced to flaccid and filiform divisions) ; upper with narrower divisions : petals a 

 line or two long, usually surpassing the calyx : akeues glabrous, barely apiculate, in a 

 globular to oblong head with a thick receptacle. — Spec. i. 551 ; Fl. Dan. t. 571 ; Curt. Fl. 

 Lond. ii. t. 42; Torr. «& Gray, 1. c. 19, with var. multijidus, Nutt., a mere form. — In shallow 

 pools, &c., New Brunswick and Canada, north to lat. 67°, west to Brit. Columbia, and south 

 to Arizona, in the Atlantic States appearing as if introduced. (Eu., Asia.) 



= ^ == = = Leaves variously cleft or divided : akenes compressed, often flat, sur- 

 rounded by a more or less conspicuous firm or indurated margin : none truly alpine or 

 arctic. 



fl. Perennials,\vith globular or ovoid carpel-heads (except R. Pennsijlvanicus) and smooth or 



sometimes barely pubescent akeues, mostly fibrous-rooted. 

 1. Hook-styled ; with long-styles recurving (at least in age) and wholly persistent in a rigid 



and uncinate elongated beak : petals only 5 : stems erect, and radical leaves hardly ever 



divided into separate leaflets. — R. Oncost i/li, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 373, excl. 



spec. 1. 

 R. recurvatus, Poir. Soft-hirsute or pubescent, a foot or two high, somewhat equally 

 leaved up to tlie short peduncles: leaves rather large (2 to 4 inches in diameter) and mostly 

 rouud-cordate in outline, 3-5-cleft to beyond the middle or uppermost 3-5-parted, but none 

 divided ; lobes rhombic-obovate, incised and dentate : petals light yellow, oblong, 2 lines 

 long, reflexed with and shorter or hardly longer than the calyx : style much recurved, 

 forming a rather slender beak wliich is not much shorter than the glabrous akene : recep- 

 tacle bristly -pilose. — Diet. vi. 125; Pursh, Fl. ii. 394; Deless. Ic. Sel. i. t. 41; Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. i. 22 (excl. vars.), 658; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 42. R. knui(jinosus, Walt. Car. 159, 

 not L. R. sanicuheformis, Muhl. Cat. 54. R. tomentosus, Spreng. Neue Entd. i. 287, not 

 Poir. — Damp woods. Nova Scotia (not "Labrador," specimen so named by DC. in herb. 

 Banks being a Geum) to Florida, Ohio, and northwestward to the Lake of the Woods. 



R.* tenellus, Nutt.^ A foot or more liigh, erect, very .slender to stoutish, sparingly pubes- 

 cent to somewhat hirsute : leaves thin, deeply 3-5-cleft ; the segments oblanceolate to 

 obovate-cuneate, sharply and irregularly few-toothed : ])etals small, not exceeding a line or 

 two in length: receptacle glabrous: akenes 12 to 30, glabrous or nearly so, in a globose 

 head, and tipped with .slender circinnate-revolute beaks. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 23; 

 Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exp. 214. R. recurvatus, Bong. Veg. Sitch. 123, in part, not Poir. R- 

 Nelsonii, var. tenellus, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 374. R. occidentalis, vars. tenellus & 

 Eiseni (in part). Gray, 1. c. xxi. 373. 7?. Boiu/ardi, Greene, Erythea, iii. 54, so far as small- 

 flowered plant of Bongard and var. tenellus are concerned, but excl. syn. R. occidentalis, var. 

 Ljjalli. — Alaska near the coast, southward to Idaho and S. California, Parish ; common. 



Var.* Lyalli, Robinson, n. var. Similar in habit and foliage but commonly more 

 pubescent or hirsute and with broader leaf-segments : akenes more or less hispid upon the 

 faces. — 1 R. occidentalis, var. parvijlorus, Torr. 1. c. R. occidentalis, var. Lyalli, Gray, 1. c. — 

 Common in damp woodlan-d, Pend Oreille River, Lyall, and in the Cascade Mountains from 

 N. California, Blunkinship, to Brit. Columbia, Macoun, and northward to Wraugel, Alaska, 

 ace. to Miss Cooley. 



R.* occidentalis, Nutt. Villous-hirsute, with the hairs on the stems widely spreading, a 

 span to a foot or more high : radical and lower cauline leaves of round-cordate outline, 

 deeply 3-5-cleft or almost parted into cuneate-obovate mostl}' 2-3-cleft and again incised 

 segments and lobes, these commonly acute, occasionally one or two 3-foliolate and all tlie 

 leaflets petiolulate ; upjjcr smaller and with simpler narrower commonly lanceolate seg- 

 ments : petals spreading, various, conspicuous and twice the length of the reflexed calyx : 

 styles forming a .stout and flattened subulate hooked beak which equals or is rather shorter 

 than the glabrous or sparingly bristly hairy akene : carpel-receptacle quite glabrous. — Nutt. 



1 From the more copious material now at hand it has seemed necessary to modify considerably 

 Dr. Gray's mannscript treatment of this and the following species. His views regarding them, how- 

 ever, have already been published (Proc. Am. Acad. x.xi. 372-374). 



3 



