BUTTERCrPS, 



27 



^'hen Dame Nature produces every^vhere a " Field of the 

 Cloth of Gold," far more effective than the one celebrated 

 in history, and far less costly. The species which is the 

 chief contributor to this display is the Bulbous Buttercup (JR. 

 bulbosus), readily distinguishable-if you will take the trouble 

 to pull one up-by the bulb-like base of its stem. Yet 

 not by this alone. There are but two other species, with 

 divided leaves and yellow flowers, with which R. bulbosus 

 could be confounded ; and, if you do not care to examme the 

 stem you may determine this one by its flowers. Blossoms 

 are usually-as far as their non-essential parts are concerned 

 -composed of corolla and calyx, the "flower" and the flower 

 cup The corolla is formed of petals, the cal)^^ of sepals, 

 which are, in the Buttercups, small, green, and insignificant, 

 five in number. So insignificant are they that you may possi- 

 bly never have noticed them ; but you have only to turn a 

 Buttercup upside down to be convinced of their existence. 

 Now in the two species which we have yet to consider, these 

 sepals, like the petals, spread upwards; but in R. bulbosus they 

 abruptly turn down. The only other species with reflexed sepals 

 is R hirsutus, to which we have before alluded ; but besides 

 the difference in locality, time of flowering, etc., R. hirsutus 

 is destitute of the bulbous stem which marks R. bulbosus. 



Our second species is the Creeping Buttercup (/?. repens) ; 

 and this, too, has a peculiarity of its own. It is stoloniferous : 

 that, is, it sends out long, creeping, rooting shoots, which are 

 called— without any ritualistic significance— ^/(?/^^. The main . 

 stem is usually upright, especially when the plant grox^^ in 

 damp or watery situations, and the flowers are very like those 

 of R bulbosus; but the different position of the sepals at 

 once distinguishes them. This Creeping Buttercup has a 

 very happv knack of adapting itself to circumstances. It is 

 equally at-home in meadows and cornfields, on dry banks or 

 damp banks, in cultivated land or waste ground. 



The third Buttercup {R. acris) is a more elegant plant than 

 either of the preceding. It has very deeply cut leaves, the 

 se-ments of which are pointed, and tall slender upright stems, 

 which support flowers of a somewhat paler hue than those 

 of R. bulbosus or R. repens, having sepals spreading upwards 

 as in the latter. Neither the bulb of R. bulbosus nor the 

 stoles of R. repens are found in this species. 



