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their numerous stamens, standing entirely free from either calyx, 

 corolla, or ovary (hypogynous), and their equally distinct carpels, 

 forming, as they do in the rose, an apocarpous fruit, they all agree 

 most closely. We wonder that the author should allow that " the 

 butter-cup, the traveller's joy, the anemone, the hellebore, and the 

 marsh-marigold," " do bear some sinailarity to each other," while he 

 denies the likeness in the case of others, which agree more nearly 

 from the possession of all the organs of fructification. No order is so 

 well adapted as the Ranunculaceae, to give the student correct ideas 

 of the comparative value of the floral envelopes and the organs of 

 reproduction, in furnishing characters available for purposes of clas- 

 sification ; those derived from the latter organs being certain, those 

 afforded by the floral envelopes being in the highest degree uncertain 

 and variable. On this head Lindley has well observed, that among 

 the Ranunculaceae we find " a very considerable number of plants, 

 differing from each other materially in the nature of their calyx and 

 corolla, but very similar otherwise. Some of them have perfectly dis- 

 tinct sepals and petals, in others these parts seem completely blended 

 together, as in Caltha and Anemone ; in others it is manifest that the 

 former only are present, as in Clematis. Those too, which have their 

 parts quite distinct, vary greatly from the real crowfoots in their na- 

 ture, the calyx or corolla being extended into spurs, and assuming a 

 very irregular condition in various ways, as in [monk's-hood] and 

 larkspur. It is, however, very interesting to find the spurred irregular- 

 flowered plants of this order assimilated with the regular spurless 

 species by means of Ranunculus acaulis, an Antarctic species, the 

 petals of which have a socket in their middle, evidently anticipating 

 the spurs of Aquilegia, &c." — Veg. Kinyd. 425. 



Amidst all the apparent confusion arising from no petals, tubular, 

 spurred, and horned petals which we find in the Ranunculaceae, two 

 simple certain characters give the key to forty-one genera and one 

 thousand species of these plants : these characters are numerous free 

 stamens and distinct carpels. 



It is scarcely necessary to occupy much space with an examination 

 of the remainder of the author's objections, which are equally futile 

 with those already adduced : for example, what can be more natural 

 than the union of " the lupin and trefoil with the laburnum," since 

 they differ in nothing but their duration, the two former being herba- 

 ceous annuals, and the latter a tree ; the papilionaceous flowers and 

 leguminous fruit being the same in all ? Then again, tliat the privet 

 and the ash are naturally located together is proved by the ease with 



