FLOWERS OF THE BOGS AND MARSHES 



[Bog and marsh plants may be otherwise described as moor and fen plants. Both require moist conditions, 

 though some moorlands are drier and more allied to heaths. Fen or marsh plants are more allied to aquatic 

 vegetation in requiring more or less partly submerged conditions. But both bog and marsh plants are allied in 

 the fact that they flourish on a layer of peat, thick in the former, thin in the latter case. An essential difference 

 i. the character of the mineral salts, acid in the former, alkaline in the latter. Transitions from these states 

 towards heath plants on the one hand, aquatic plants on the other, are to be found, and hence some plants 

 occurring in this section may be found in either of the others.] 



ORDER RANUNCULACE^ 



Alpine Meadow Rue (Thalictrum alpinum, L.). 

 The habitat of this plant is the higher parts of 

 mountains, alpine and subalpine bogs; and it is 

 plentiful on wet rocks, and in swampy spots on 

 moors. The plant is erect in habit. The stem is 

 wiry, simple, naked, sometimes stoloniferous, more 

 or less leafless. The leaves are twice ternate, 

 chiefly radical, long- stalked. The leaflets are 

 small, nearly rounded, bluish-green below, with 

 blunt lobes. The flowers are few, in simple, ter- 

 minal racemes, at first drooping, later erect. The 

 ultimate flower-stalks are bent back in fruit. The 

 purplish sepals are four. The stamens are pendu- 

 lous, 18-20. The anthers are linear, apiculate. 

 The capsule, an achene, is shortly stalked, curved, 

 ribbed, tipped with the hooked style. The plant 

 is 4-10 in. high, flowering in July and August, and 

 is a herbaceous perennial. 



Three-lobed Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus tri- 

 partitus, D.C.). The habitat of this plant is 

 marshes and ditches, S. and W. England, shallow 

 pools, and the plant is very rare. The plant is 

 floating. The submerged leaves are loosely 3- 

 forked (hence tripartitus), the segments slender, 

 collapsing to some extent, the floating leaves 

 small, deeply divided nearly to the base into 3 

 (hence also tripartitus]^ the segments rounded, 

 2-5 lobed, the central one as long as the lateral. 

 The stipules are round, the upper free. The flower- 

 stalk is slender, as long as the leaf-stalks, bent 

 back at length. The flowers are white, very small, 

 the petals not longer than the calyx. The stamens 

 are 5-8, the stigma tapering. The receptacle is 

 small and round. The carpels are few, inversely 

 egg-shaped, swollen, with a small hairless beak. 

 The plant is floating, flowering between May and 

 August, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Large Ivy-leaved Crowfoot (Ranunculus Lenor- 

 mandi, F. Schultz). The habitat of this plant is 

 shallow ponds on mud, marshes and ditches, pools, 

 and muddy places. The habit is prostrate, trail- 

 ing. The stem floats or creeps on mud, and is 

 stout, branched. There are no submerged leaves. 



The aerial leaves are often opposite, kidney- 

 shaped or rounded, heart-shaped, the 3-5 lobes 

 deeply divided, widening from the base, very 

 broad at the top, with 2-3 notches, not spotted, 

 the lobes shallow, the base contracted. The 

 stipules are broad, especially the upper, and large. 

 The flowers are white, the petals twice as long as 

 the calyx, oblong, narrow, inversely egg-shaped, 

 S-veined, distant. There are 8-10 stamens. The 

 receptacle is not hairy. The style is terminal, 

 central on the ovary. The achenes are numerous, 

 hairless, unequally inversely egg-shaped, with a 

 terminal point, the inner edge much rounded above, 

 with slender, deciduous, nearly terminal style. 

 The plant is creeping, or 4-12 in. long, flowering 

 between June and August, and is a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus flammula, L.). 

 The habitat of this species is wet places. The 

 plant is prostrate below, then ascending or creep- 

 ing. The stems are sometimes rooting below. 

 The leaves vary considerably, being hairy or not, 

 egg - shaped or linear to lance - shaped, nearly 

 entire or coarsely toothed, stalked, the lowest 

 leaves stalked, the upper stalkless. The inter- 

 nodes are straight. The flowers are shining 

 yellow. The flower -stalk is furrowed. The 

 achenes are inversely egg-shaped, pitted, shortly 

 beaked, the style small, awl-like, forming a small 

 head. The plant is 4-18 in. high, flowering from 

 June to October, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Adder's Tongue Crowfoot (Ranunculus ophio- 

 %lossifolius, Vill.). The habitat of this plant is 

 wet places. The habit is prostrate below, then 

 erect. The root is fibrous. The stem is branched, 

 tapering below, many - flowered, erect, hollow, 

 furrowed. The leaves are egg-shaped, lance- 

 shaped, the lower long-stalked, egg-shaped or 

 heart-shaped, the upper stalkless, clasping, oblong. 

 The plant is hairless. The flowers are small, 

 yellow, the petals little longer than the sepals. 

 The flower-stalks are furrowed. While the flowers 

 of R. flammula are in. in diameter, those of this 

 species are J in. The achenes are small, hairy, 

 granulate, obliquely egg-shaped, margined, with 



