534 



RANUNCULACEAE 



Stagnant ponds or pools or slow-flowing streams : Humboldt Co. ; Modoc Co. 

 North to British Columbia, east to the Atlantic. Siberia. Rarely collected in 

 California. 



Loes. Grouse Creek, Humboldt Co., Chesnut $ Drew; ne. Modoc Co., Manning 126. 



Eefs. EANUNCULUS DELPHINIFOLIUS Torr. ; Eaton, Man. ed. 2, 395 (1818), type loc. pre- 

 sumably e. U. S. E. multifidus Pursh, Fl. 736 (1814), not Forsk. 



2. R. hydrocharoides Gray. Aquatic perennial ; stems rather slender, spar- 

 ingly branched above, 3 to 8 inches high from a coarse but short vertical root- 

 stock, which also produces creeping stems; leaves mostly basal, these long-petioled, 

 simple, ovate to cordate, entire, undulate and somewhat callous-margined, 5 to 

 12 lines long, a little succulent ; flowers 2^4 to 3*/2 lines broad ; upper leaves 

 obovate or spatulate ; achenes % line long. 



Marshes and springs: Owens Valley, ace. Gray; (?)Dead Horse Canon, Sis- 

 kiyou Co., M. 8. Baker (leaves 1 to 1% inches long). Arizona to Mexico. Aspect 

 suggestive of a small Sagittaria. 



Kefs. EANUNCULUS HYDROCHAROIDES Gray, PI. Thurb. 306 (1854), type loc. Mabibi, 

 Sonora, Mex., Thurber; Syn. Fl. I* -.26 (1895). 



3. R. alismaefolius Geyer. Stems stout, somewhat fistulous, erect, sparingly 

 branched above, several-flowered, 8 to 18 inches high, arising from a short per- 

 ennial rootstock bearing thick-fibrous roots; herbage glabrous, rarely a little 

 hairy ; leaves oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 2y 2 to 6 inches long, mostly 5 to 8 

 (or 32) lines broad, tapering to apex, and at base usually tapering gradually 

 into the petiole, the basal and lower leaves long-petioled, the upper shortly 

 petioled or sessile, entire or commonly a few on a plant obscurely serrulate; 

 flowers 8 to 10 lines broad ; petals 5, roundish obovate ; achenes smooth, glabrous, 

 turgid, 1 line long, with a short-subulate introrse beak. 



Swamps in Mendocino and Humboldt cos. North to British Columbia and 

 Idaho. 



Locs. Long Valley, Bolander 4730; Burr Valley, Buck Mt, Tracy 4155. 



Var. hartwegii Jepson n. comb. Stems slender, not fistulous, ascending, 3 to 13 inches 

 high, usually a little leafy, simple or sparingly branched, but umbellately 3-flowered at summit ; 

 stems and petioles hairy or glabrous; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1 to 4 inches long, 

 tapering gradually into the petiole or the uppermost sessile or nearly so; petioles about half 

 as long as the blade, rarely longer; flowers 5 to 8 lines broad; achenes with short -filiform or 

 slender beak. Higher altitudes (4500 to 9000 feet) in the Sierra Nevada from Tuolumne Co. 

 north to Siskiyou Co., thence southwesterly to northern Trinity Co. This variety passes into 

 var. alismellus, although the two in their extreme forms are quite different. 



Locs. Sonora Pass, A. L. Grant 147; Twin Lakes, Alpine Co., Hansen 1306; Lake Tahoe, 

 Anna King ; Prosser Creek, Sonne ; Big Mdws., Plumas Co., E. M. Austin; Lassen Peak, Jepson 

 4091; Modoc Co., M. S. Baker; Medicine Lake, Siskiyou Co., M. S. Baker; Goosenest Mt., 

 Butter 1322; Salmon Mts., Hall 8617. 



Var. alismellus Gray. (Fig. 106.) Leaves thin, mostly or usually wholly basal, these and 

 the stems in dense tufts; stems 2 to 10 inches high, commonly simple and 1-flowered, naked 

 or 1 or 2-leaved; herbage glabrous, sometimes slightly hairy at base; leaves ovate to oblong- 

 lanceolate, 4 to 12 lines long, on petioles as long or longer, the few stem leaves nearly sessile; 

 flowers 3 to 6 lines broad. Alpine or subalpine wet mea-dows or shallow streamlets, 7000 to 

 10,500 feet, often filling gravelly meadows with golden bloom: Sierra N"evada; far North Coast 

 Eanges; high mountains of Southern California. July. 



Locs. In its most extreme form this is a plant with the leaves all basal in a dense compact 

 even tuft and the strictly naked simple 1-flowered scapes rising an inch or two above them; 

 the leaves are mostly broad (ovate, oval or elliptic), with the blade clearly defined from 

 the petiole. Such plants are rather characteristic of sloping gravel drifts wifli trickling Avater 

 ("snow runs") or wet sandy meadows, as for example about Smedberg Lake, Yosemite Park 

 (Jepson 3380). More commonly the scapes are sparingly leafy but only 1-flowered, rarely 

 2 or 3-flowered. The following specimens verify the range of var. alismellus. Sierra Nevada : 

 Lassen Peak, Jepson 4095; Donner Pass, Heller 7010; Yosemite Park, Jepson 4503 (Benson 

 Pass), 3232, 3236 (Vogelsang Pass); Huntington Lake, Fresno Co., A. L. Grant 1030; Mt. 

 Silliman, Jepson 748 ; East Fork Kern Eiver, Jepson 5048 ; Templeton Mt., Tulare Co., Jepson 



