536 



RANUNCULACEAE 



6. R. pusillus Poir. DWARF SPEARWORT. Slender annual, 3 to 11 inches 

 high ; herbage glabrous or the dilated petiole somewhat sparingly villous-ciliate ; 

 basal leaves round-ovate to ovate, toothed or entire, 3 to 8 lines long, on elongated 

 petioles; cauline leaves elliptic-oblong to linear-lanceolate, entire or slightly 

 denticulate, % to 2 inches long, more shortly petioled; flowers minute; sepals 

 subscarious, mostly not reflexed; petals commonly 1 to 3, % line long; achenes 

 numerous in a small globose head, papillate, 1/2 line long, the beak very minute. 



Low wet ground or in shallow pools, North Coast Eanges (Marin Co. to 

 Humboldt Co.). Eastern United States. Apr.-May. , Cattle do not eat it. 



Locs. Between Olema and Bolinas, T. Brandegee; Sonoma, B. Kulm; Howell Mt., Tracy 

 1531; Calistoga, Jepson 9180; Willits, Davy # Blasdale; Alder Pt., Eel Eiver, Davy 1912. 



Refs. RANUNCULUS PUSILLUS Poir. in Lam. Encye. 6:99 (1804), type from the Carolinas; 

 Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 199 (1901). Var. lindheim'eri Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 21:367 (1886) ; 

 Jepson, Fl. "W. Mid. Cal. ed. 2, 170 (1911). E. trachyspermus var. lindheimeri Engelm. PL 

 Lindheim. 1:3 (1845), type loc. Houston, Tex., Lindheimer. E. biolettii Greene, Pitt. 2:225 

 (1892), type loc. Shellville, Sonoma Co., Bioletti. 



7. R. glaberrimus Hook. Perennial ; stems 3 to 7 inches high, 1 to 3-flowered, 

 these and the basal leaves from a cluster of slender-fusiform roots; herbage 

 glabrous, somewhat succulent; basal leaves roundish to oval, obtuse or truncate 

 at base, 3-lobed at apex, or entire, y 2 * 1 1 A inches long, on petioles 3 to 4 times 

 as long; cauline leaves few, 3-lobed or 3-parted, short-petioled or subsessile; 

 flowers golden-yellow, sometimes aging white, % to 1*4 inches broad; achenes 

 plump, with roundish back, % line long, the short beak slender-subulate, straight. 



Moist flats : Lassen, Modoc and Siskiyou cos. North to British Columbia and 

 east to Colorado. 



Locs. Milford, Lassen Co., M. S. Baker; Alturas, L. S. Smith 915; Ft. Bidwell, Manning 

 54; Big Valley, Modoc Co., M. S. Baker; Goose Lake, Austin fy Bruce; Shasta River Canon, 

 Butler 1117. 



Eefs. RANUNCULUS GLABERRIMUS Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 1:12, t. 5, fig. A (1829), Kettle 

 Falls (Columbia River) and Rocky Mts., Douglas. E. ellipticus Greene, Pitt 2:110 (1890). 

 E. glaberrimus var. elliptiwis Greene, Fl. Fr. 298 (1892). E. austinae Greene, Erythea, 3:44 

 (1895), type loc. crevices in high bluffs of lava rock east of Willow Creek Valley 30 miles w. 

 of Goose Lake, B. M. Austin. 



8. R. eschscholtzii Schlecht. Perennial; stems and leaves in a dense tuft 

 on a very short vertical rootstock which bears a fascicle of fibrous or thickened 

 roots ; stems erect, 4 to 6 (or 10) inches high ; herbage glabrous, the calyx slightly 

 hairy; basal leaves 6 to 15 lines broad, broader than long but roundish or reni- 

 form in outline, subcordate at base, unequally 3-cleft or -parted, the smaller 

 central lobe obovate, entire, or 3-toothed, the lateral mostly 3-cleft, rarely all the 

 lobes alike, but all the apices acute ; petioles 1 to 2 inches long ; cauline leaves few, 

 similar or pedately 3-cleft, short-petioled; peduncles terminal, naked, !/> to 1 

 (or 21/2) inches long; flowers golden-yellow (often aging dull white), 4 to 9 lines 

 broad ; petals round-obovate ; achenes thickened, glabrous, smooth, somewhat 

 carinate on the back, the beak short, recurved ; receptacle oblong, 4 to 5 lines long. 



Subalpine, in gravelly or rocky surface streamlets on cool mountain slopes, 

 9000 to 13,700 feet; central and southern Sierra Nevada from Nevada Co. to 

 Tulare Co. ; White Mts. ; San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains. Western 

 Nevada. North to Alaska. 



Geog. Note. This species is apparently absent from the northern Sierra Nevada, Mt. Shasta, 

 the Coast Ranges and the Oregon Cascades. The plants of the high Sierras are, in habit, foliage 

 and flowers, at one with Oregon plants distributed as R. esehscholtzii Schlecht. by many capable 

 botanists and so described in local floras. The achenes of the California plants are turgid 

 when well-developed, certainly not "compressed," although sometimes slightly carinate, but 

 often no more so than in northern specimens. At best this single character, so slight and 



