44 GUERNSEY. 
* Ranunculus Lingua, L. Great Sprarwort. 
Extinct. 
This fine species has long ceased to exist in the island, no trace 
of it having been found for over thirty years. No locality is specified 
in #/. Sarn., but Babington saw the plant himself in ‘wet places,. 
Guernsey.’ It occurs in Alderney. 
Ranunculus Ficaria, L. Pilewort. Lesser Celanaine. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Very common in all parts. One of the earliest of spring flowers, 
being frequently found in blossom early in January. In 1894 I 
saw a plant well in flower in Saints Bay Valley on the 24th of 
November. 
Called in the Guernsey patois Péssenliette (French, Pissendit), the 
exact equivalent of an old name which is still used in many rural 
parts of England, but also shared, both in this country and in 
France, with the Dandelion. In Normandy it is known by the 
name of /aunez. The Pilewort, although visited by insects, rarely 
ripens seed, but produces instead little bulbs in the axils of the 
leaves, and these, washed out after heavy rains and accumulated in 
quantities, have originated the myth of a rain of potatoes. 
Ranunculus acris, L. Meadow Crowfoot. Buttercup. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Very common in meadows and damp pastures. 
Called in Normandy Predbot, or Prépot. Very irritant, like most 
of the yellow-flowered Ranunculi. Both this species and #’. bu hosus 
are called Go/dcups in Devonshire, and they are the ‘ Cuckoo-buds 
of yeliow hue’ referred to in the song in Love’s Labour's Lost, v. 2. 
Ranunculus repens, L. Creeping Buttercup. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Common in cultivated fields and gardens, and about ditches, 
roadsides, and waste spots. 
Ranunculus bulbosus, L. Bulbous Buttercup. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Common in all parts. In 1889 I found in a lane by Richmond 
Hill a large plant bearing numerous flowers, every one of which was 
apetalous. In Journ. Bot., 1%71, p. 198, Dr. H. Trimen describes a 
singular variety which he found in a pasture field above Moulin 
Huet ; but its strange appearance was ascertained to be due to the 
presence of a fungus In Alderney I have found a root bearing 
very double flowers, resembling the garden form called Bachelor’s 
Buttons. It was growing in a perfectly wild spot, among multitudes 
of the ordinary plant. 
According to Prior (Popular Names of British Plants, 1879) 
