30 ENGLISH BOTANY 
which they spring). Flowers about + inch in diameter. Petals 
as long as or very slightly exceeding the calyx. Stamens 6 
to 10, a little longer than the head of pistils. Style short. Achenes 
rather small, very much inflated at the tip, rather numerous, closely 
packed in a globular head; their inner edge nearly straight through- 
out, the outer edge convex nearly to the tip, which is very obtuse, 
almost truncate. Receptacle globular, glabrous. 
In ditches and wet places. Common, and universally distributed 
throughout Britain. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring to Autumn. 
Stem branched, creeping in mud, the upper portion floating 
when covered by water. Leaves from 4 inch to 1 inch across, 
rarely occupying so much as a semicircle. When growing on mud, 
the lobes are commonly triangular and quite entire; but when in 
water of some depth, they float on the surface, and have the lobes 
completely rounded, and occasionally slightly emarginate, when it 
appears to be R. ccenosus of Gussone. Flowers very small. Petals 
white, tinged with yellow at the base, scarcely exceeding the calyx, 
narrowly oblong-oklanceolate, 3-veined, spreading like the rays of a 
star. Achenes pale-yellowish olive, very much inflated at the tip, 
where the persistent base of the style forms an apiculus, which is 
quite on the upper side of the carpel. 
When this plant grows in mud, the entire triangular lobes of 
the leaves distinguish it from all the other Batrachian Ranunculi; 
and when found in water, the only one with which it can be con- 
founded is the preceding, from which it differs by having the leaves 
mostly opposite, broader in proportion to their length, with much 
shallower and not at all obovate lobes, much more adnate stipules, 
shorter peduncles, flowers half the size, carpels much more inflated 
at the apex, and having a lateral and not a central apiculus. The 
leaves of R. hederaceus have very frequently dark markings, which 
I have never observed in R. coenosus. 
I have no doubt that the floating state of this plant is that 
which Gussone has named R. ccenosus. He does not describe the 
peculiarity of the carpels, nor of the stipules; but he mentions the 
petals as scarcely exceeding the calyx. I possess a specimen from 
Sicily, collected by MM. E. and A. Huet de Pavillon, to which the 
name of R. ceenosus is given, and which is certainly the floating 
form of R. hederaceus; and I have also seen one from Professor 
Gasparini in Professor Babington’s herbarium, similarly named, 
which is also the floating form of R. hederaceus. M. Brebisson’s 
plant is also identical with this. 
Ivy-leaved Water Crowfoot. 
French, Renoncule & Feuilles de Lierre. 
