92 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



pericarp or cover. These jjarts require to be magnified to be tlis- 

 tinctl}'" seen. 



This plant, as well as a nnmber of others of the same family, is. a 

 native of Europe, but is extensively naturalized, and is found in 

 waste places and cultivated ground. The young plants are some- 

 times used as a pot-herb. 



The variety viride, by some considered a distinct species, has also 

 been introduced, and is becoming in some localities even more abun- 

 dant than the other. It is of a deeper green, has narrower leaves, 

 and blooms earlier. (Plate XVI.) 



Ranunculus acris (buttercup, tall crowfoot). 



A perennial herb of the order Banunculacece. a native of Europe, 

 but extensively naturalized in New England and New York in past- 

 ures and meadows. The roots are fibrous, the stem is about 2 feet 

 high, and branching near the summit. The leaves are mostly from 

 the base, and on long stems, which are generally clothed with soft 

 hairs. These leaves are roundish in outline, but divided into about 

 three or five principal segments, and each segment is again parted into 

 about three divisions, which are again cut into coarse teeth or lobes. 

 The- stem has but few leaves, and those more deeply gashed, with the 

 uppermost reduced to a few linear segments. The flowers are at the 

 ends of the long naked branches, either singly or 2 or 3 near together. 

 They are about three-fourths of an inch in diameter and of a bright 

 yellow color. The calyx consists of 5 green sepals, which are shorter 

 than the petals and spread out horizontally. The outer organs soon 

 fall oft, and the ovaries mature into a roundish head of small, hard, 

 flattened, and pointed carpels. 



It is not uncommon in the New England States and in New York 

 to see large fields of pasture-land completely taken possession of by 

 this buttercup or crow-foot. On account of the acrid juice which it 

 contains it is always rejected by cattle in the field, but as the acridity 

 is dissipated by drying, the leaves are eaten when joresent in hay, but 

 the long coarse stems are so much waste matter. (Plate XYII.) 



Ranunculus bulbosus (bulbous-rooted buttercup). 

 A small species of buttercup, with a roundish bulbous root, also 

 introduced from Europe and naturalized in some places, particularly 

 in Pennsylvania and Virginia, to such an extent as to be quite a pest 

 in meadows and pastures. The segments of the leaves are about 

 three, not so close together as in the R. acris, and generally with 

 fewer lobes. The flowers are of about the same size and color as the 

 preceding, but the sepals or parts of the caJvx are reflexed. (Plate 

 XVIII.) 



Barharea vulgaris and Barharea prcBcox (winter-cress, 

 scurvy-grass). 

 A biennial plant of the natural order Cruciferoe. related to the 

 mustard, turnip, cress, and cabbage. It grows to the height of about 

 2 feet. The stem is disposed to branch at the uj^per part. It pro- 

 duces numerous yellow flowers in rather close, short racemes, which 

 as they grow older are elongated and covered with somewhat four- 

 sided, narrow pods, about an inch in length. There are two sjDecies, 

 differing principally in the leaves, which in B. vulgaris are shorter, 

 with a large roundish extremity and sometimes a few short lobes be- 



