s 
190 PITTONIA. 
confident that an unbiassed judgment, formed upon thor- 
ough knowledge of the characteristics of Kumlienia, will 
rule that no more valid genus has been added to the Ranun- 
eulacee within a century. 
EXPLANATION oF PrATE II.—Small plant of the natural size; a, front 
view of petal, 4 times natural size; b, head of utricles, natural size; 
c, utricular fruit 6 times enlarged. 
AnzcrERANTHIS Cooney. Ranunculus Cooleyx, Rose, 
U. S. Herb. i. 289, t.22. Kumlienia Cooleyx, Greene, Eryth. 
ii. 193 & iii. 53. (Pittonia, Plate III). In this type there is, 
as compared with Kumlienia, a deficiency of technical char- 
acters by which to establish it in generie rank to the satis- 
faction of that botanical multitude, the artificialists. Arete- 
ranthis is sui generis none the less, and for the reason that it 
cannot be naturally referred to Ranunculus, or to Caltha, 
Kumlienia, Trollius, or any other recognized genus. The 
genera Calthaand Trollius are distinguished by nothing but 
general differences of foliage and habit; yet almost all au- 
thors keep them distinct. Only the late very distinguished 
organographer and systematist, M. Baillon, made of them 
one genus. And Areteranthis, as to foliage and flower, bears 
a strong likeness to Trollius. But its fruit is a head of 
achenes ; that of Trollius a whorl of follicles ; therefore the 
former is not reducible to the latter. As I have already in- 
dicated, and as the figure of the flower will demonstrate, it 
cannot reasonably be placed as a Ranunculus. Neither its 
calyx nor its corolla—and these circles are not themselves 
very distinct the one from the other—are those of any but- 
tereup. And, if I formerly referred the species to Kumlienia, 
that was at first because of my having placed too much faith 
in the accuracy of the figure published by Mr. Rose. That 
figure certainly indicates a plant more resembling Kumlienia 
than is warranted by the specimens. As to the flower, the 
figure departs from nature very widely ; for the petals are 
represented not only as being very distinct from the sepals — 
& 
