287 

 VARIETIES IN THE WATER RANUNCULI. 



By T. ELASHILL, Esq., of London. 



Having several years since made a collection illustrative of that very 

 difficult group of plants included under the popular name of water crowfoot, I 

 am reqiiested by our President to submit a few notes upon them to the club, 

 with the view of drawing attention to the present state of our knowledge of 

 these plants, which I believe all practical botanists consider to be rather 

 xinsatisfactory. 



The genus Ranunculus is one of those which range over a great variety 

 of soils and situations : there is, indeed, hardly any description of site for 

 which one or other of our British species is not adapted. First there are the 

 species of water croAvfoot, wliich belong to ditches, pools, and rivers, and 

 allied to them is the ivy- leaved ranunculus (R. liederaccus), the plant of very 

 shallow water. R. sceleratus gi-ows in niuddy places, lingua and flammula in 

 marshy places, ficaria and auricomus in moist shady places, acris and bulbosus 

 in meadows and pastures, repens in waste ground, hirsutus and arvensis in corn 

 fields, and par-viflorus on dry banks. The steps between these several species 

 is never very wide, even if we omit to notice some intermediate foreign plants, 

 and several of our native species are subject to a consideiable degree of varia- 

 tion when they stray out of their native and proper localities, I have 

 specimens of hirsutus which from growing ujjon mtid have acquired very much 

 of the character of sceleratus, the plant of muddy places ; acris is said to 

 change similarly under the like circumstances, and this jjlant also forms a 

 small alpine variety. Such facts as these should prepare vis for a considerable 

 amount of variation in other species of the genus. 



In order to present a clear view of the Water Rauu.nculi I have chosen 

 to adopt the arrangement, and use the illustrations of the last edition of 

 " English Botany," by Mr. John T. Boswell Syme, that being, I believe, the 

 best hitherto published. This arrangement is as follows : — 



Species 1 — R. circinatus, which has submerged leaves only : these spread 

 out into a rounded shape, in one plane, and give to the plant an appearance 

 very distinct from other species which gi'ow in similar places. 



Species 2 — R. fliutans, the plant of rivers, whei-e its long stems and 

 thread-shaped leaves form a conspicuous object in such strong streams as 

 the Severn and the Wye. 



Species 3 — R. aquatilis, which is divided into four svib-species, thus (1) R. 

 peltatus, of which there are these three varieties, a vulgaris, B florihundus, 

 and y pseudo-Huitans. The last of these varieties grows in running water, 

 and differs from the more common forms of the j^lant by producing under 

 water long, tassel-Uke, collapsing leaves, and in general ajipearance it resembles 

 R. Huitans. Floating leaves are rarely produced. It grows abundantly in the 

 river Arrow at Pembridge. (2) R. heterophyllus has submerged leaves, wliioh 



