52 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



not tb<> case. This feature is only noticeable in the fully 

 expanded flower. In our illustration it will be observed 

 that the parts of the calyx wrap the bud round in the ordi- 

 nary way, and it is only on the expansion of the blossom 

 that the sepals are thrown back. 



The buttercup may be considered one of the typical 

 flowers of the early summer. It will ordinarily be found in 

 flower by about the end of the first week in April, and lasting 

 through May and June and the first half or so of July. 

 It is a perennial, and therefore when once established not 

 easily got rid of again. The cup form of the blossom that 

 gives it one of its common names, buttercup, is in this 

 species particularly clearly defined. In the goldilocks, for 

 example, the water buttercup, or the celandine, allied 

 plants, this regularity of form is bv no means so clearly 

 seen, though all three are popularly called buttercups. 

 The stems of the bulbous crowfoot are furrowed slightly, 

 while in several of the other species they are merely cylin- 

 drical. There is a great variety of form in the foliage : 

 the upper leaves, it will be noticed, have a much greater 

 simplicit}' of outline than the lower, the segments of which 

 the leaves are composed being in one case very long and 

 Earrow, while in the other they are broadened out into very 

 distinct masses. Most of the lower leaves are far larger and 

 richer in outline than the limited space at our disposal 

 allows us to depict. 



