RANUNCULACEOUS MONOTYPES. 191 
as a floral circle, they are shown to be of not more than one- 
third the size of the sepals, and both these errors are in the 
direction of a likeness to Kumlienia. Mr. Rose had no war- 
rant for the presentation of such a flower as that of his 
figure. The specimens known to him were all out of flower; 
and this flower of his plate must have been reconstructed 
from perhaps one or more withered abortive petals that may 
have been found somewhere among the specimens. It is 
this very grave misrepresentation of the floral structure in 
this original plate which has seemed to call for the publica- 
tion of a correct representation, such as is given in the plate 
accompanying these paragraphs. I must also here call 
attention to another serious defect in Mr. Rose's figure, one 
which falsifies the relation of the plant to Ranunculus. That 
is, the branched and two-flowered scape. The type specimen, 
from which the plate in question was made, has two per- 
fectly naked scapes, each with its terminal head of achenes. 
It has been explained to me that this error came about 
through a mistake in the mounting of the specimen ; this 
sundered terminal half of the second scape having been fas- 
tened down, in this false position of a branch to the other, 
in the process of mounting. This error has long since been 
corrected, as to the herbarium sheet, while no published 
Statement of this item of falsity in the figure has until now 
been made. This error, along with the still more serious 
one as to the sepals and petals, makes it easy to adopt the 
view that the plant may be a Ranunculus. How grave these 
errors are may be appreciated by any one who will compare 
the figure thus criticised with the one in the present volume. 
If people were to go by the plates alone, they might easily 
and reasonably judge them to represent two very different 
species, if not indeed representatives of two genera. Yet I, 
who have.the largest and fairest collection extant of speci- 
mens of the plant, am certain that they are all of one and 
the same species. | 
26 
