9 TRANSACTIONS OF THE (oct. 3, 
The names were referred to the Council for action. 
Dr. Bolton read a communication from Cairo, Egypt, dated, 
August 29th, 1892, and containing a sealed envelope enclosing 
a drawing of an apparatus for producing perpetual motion. 
The paper has been deposited with other papers of the Academy. 
Dr. Britton reported that the Audubon Monument was near- 
ly completed and that the ceremonies of unveiling would take 
place in the course of a few weeks. 
Prof. D, 8. Martin called attention to the death of Prof. Wm. 
P. Trowbridge and on motion the chair appointed Profs, Chand- 
ler, Martin and Rees, a committee to draw up and present suit- 
able resolutions to the Academy. 
A paper was read by Dr. N. L. Britton on Ranunculus re- 
pens L. and its Eastern North American Allies, illustrated by 
specimens, 
RANUNCULUS REPENS AND ITS EASTERN NORTH 
AMERICAN ALLIES. 
By N. L. Brirron. 
Owing to the tendency to keep the number of species as small 
as possible, which has characterized the work of many American 
botanists from the time of Nuttall to the latter years of Dr. 
Gray’s life, many of our plants have been imperfectly under- 
stood. This is notably true in the case of the Buttercups here 
discussed. In the Torrey and Gray Flora of 1838, the group 
was divided among R. repens, L., with two varieties, and &. 
hirsutus, Michx. In the first edition of Gray’s Manual (1848), 
hirsutus was dropped and R. fascicularis, Muhl., admitted; and 
this arrangement was maintained in the subsequent editions 
including the fifth (1867), and was also followed by Wood in his 
Class-Book, and Botanist and Florist. In Dr. Gray’s books the 
difficulty about R. repens was disposed of by the statement that 
it is ‘‘extremely variable in size and foliage.’’ Meanwhile 
everybody that looked at the plants at all critically was unable 
to determine them satisfactorily. 
In 1886, when Dr. Gray took up the Ranunculacez for the 
Synoptical Flora (Proc. Am. Acad., xxi. 363 et seq.) he 
