BUTTERCUP FAMILY 537 



variable, could be of no more than varietal value. If specimens from Iliuliuk, Unalaska, 

 Aleutian Islands (Jepson 67), were mixed with specimens from Mt. Lyell, we feel certain that 

 they could not afterwards be segregated into their respective collections. The styles are quite 

 alike in the two and even the faintly tawny shade of the hairs on the upper reduced leaf- 

 sheaths is the same. The peduncles vary in length but they are often as short as in Alaskan 

 specimens. Therefore we quote here: Piute Mt., Yosemite Park, Jepson 4579; Vogelsang 

 Pass, Jepson 3226; Mt. Lyell, Hall $ Babcock 3651; Mt, San Jacinto, Hall 2414. The thicker- 

 leaved plants (var. oxynotus Jepson n. comb.) may be listed as follows: Mt. Stanford, 

 Nevada Co., Sonne; Stanislaus Peak, A. L. Grant 535; Sonora Peak, A. L. Grant 401; Kaiser 

 Peak, Fresno Co., A. L. Grant 1427; Kearsarge Pinnacles, Jepson 850; Mt. Whitney, Jepson 

 1077; Army Pass, Jepson 5062; Milestone Creek, upper Kern River, Jepson 5033; Alta Mdws., 

 Hopping 515; Lost Creek, Sawtooth Range, Jepson 4995; Farewell Gap, Jepson 1025; Olancha 

 Mt., Hall $ Babcock 5232; White Mountain Peak, Jepson 7384; Mt. San Gorgonio, Blasdale. 

 Eefs. RANUNCULUS ESCHSCHOLTZII Schlecht. Animad. Ran. 2:16, t. 1 (1820), type from the 

 Aleutian Islands, Clwmisso. Var. OXYNOTUS Jepson. E. oxynotus Gray, Proe. Am. Acad. 

 10:68 (1874), type loc. Castle Peak, Nevada Co., Lemmon. 



9. R. sceleratus L. CURSED CROWFOOT. Annual; stems erect, somewhat 

 fistulous, branching, leafy, 7 to 12 inches high, from a cluster of stout fibrous 

 roots; herbage glabrous or nearly so, somewhat succulent ; leaves % to l 1 /^ inches 

 broad, parted into 3 (or 5) cuneate segments which are again cleft and coarsely 

 toothed, the ultimate lobes or divisions short-oblong, obtuse ; basal leaves long- 

 petioled ; uppermost leaves nearly sessile, the segments broadly linear and nearly 

 entire ; flowers 3 to 5 lines broad ; petals pale yellow, scarcely exceeding the calyx ; 

 receptacle elliptic or oblong, l 1 /^ to 4 lines long ; achenes thick, % line long, the 

 beak almost none. 



Shallow pools or muddy margins of lakes of the interior plateau from Oregon 

 to Arizona (thence far northward and eastward), entering California in Modoc 

 Co. Juice acrid, raising blisters on the skin. 



Locs. Pitt River below Goose Lake, R. M. Austin. Klamath Falls, Ore., E. M. Austin. 



Refs. RANUNCULUS SCELERATUS L. Sp. PI. 551 (1753), type European. E. eremogenes 

 Greene, Erythea, 4:121 (1896), type loc. "West American desert regions." 



10. R. bongardii Greene. Perennial; stems slender, or often coarse, 1 to 

 2 feet high ; herbage sparsely or densely pilose below, above pubescent or hir- 

 sutulose ; leaves 3-parted, the divisions shallowly 3-cleft or disposed to be quite 

 entire, rather broad and elongated, especially the upper; flowers small (2 to 3 

 lines broad), very pale yellow or whitish; achenes elliptic, glabrous, the very 

 slender beak as long as the body, erect-curved like a grab-hook. 



Shady woods: Humboldt Co. and northern Sierra Nevada. North to Alaska. 



Locs. Eureka, Tracy 1104, 3133; Donner Lake, Sonne. Var. greenei Piper. Achenes his- 



pidulose. Kneeland Prairie, Humboldt Co., Ghesnut Drew; Eureka, Tracy 1137, 2416, 4687; 



Pine Ridge, Fresno Co., Hall $ Chandler 131 ; Little Bear Valley, San Bernardino Mts., 



Chandler. 



Refs. RANUNCULUS BONGARDII Greene, Erythea, 3:54 (1895). E. tenellus Nutt.; T. & G. 

 Fl. 1:23 (1838), type loe. Columbia and Willamette rivers, Nuttall; not R. tenellus Viviani, 

 PL Aegypt. (1831). Var. GKEENEI Piper, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 11:275 (1906). B. greenei 

 Howell, Fl. Nw. Am. 1:18 (1897). B. tenellus var. lyallii Rob. in Gray, Syn. Fl. T:33 (1895). 

 E. occidentalis var. lyallii Gray, Proc. Am, Acad, 21:373 (1886), type loc. Pen d'Oreille River, 

 Ida., Lyall; not R. lyallii Hook. 



11. R. canus Benth. Perennial ; stems erect, branching, 1 to 1% feet high ; 

 herbage fragrant (at least at certain stations, probably not always), soft-villous 

 all over when young or the leaves beneath conspicuously silky-lanate ; leaves 

 mostly in a basal tuft, deeply parted and subdivided into many lanceolate acute 

 segments, long-petioled ; flowers 6 to 12 lines broad ; petals 5 to 8 (or 10) ; achenes 

 large, flat, glabrous, 2 to 3 lines long, including the rather conspicuous triangular- 

 subulate beak which is slightly curved at the tip. 



