THE GOLDILOCKS AND WATER RANUNCULUS. 67 



for example. The sepals are not so entirely green as 

 we find them in most plants, but share with the petals 

 some of the rich golden yellow that makes the latter so 

 brilliant and attractive. The leaves given out at intervals 

 from the stem are but few in number, and are divided to 

 their bases into a series of long and narrow segments. 

 The radical leaves are on long stalks (those on the stems 

 being stalkless), much larger, and having the lobes of 

 which they are composed broad and well developed. These 

 lower leaves are rarely noticed amidst the long grass and 

 herbage in which the plant is ordinarily met with, and it 

 is only by carefully tracing the stem down to the ground 

 that they may be discovered, and their relationship to 

 the stem leaves that are so very different in form satis- 

 factorily established. The goldilocks has not the acridity 

 that is so marked a feature in most of the other species 

 of buttercups, some of which have been employed me- 

 dicinally from these acrid and rubefaciant properties, 

 though their action is so far irregular and violent as to 

 make them by no means safe remedies. 



The Ranunculus aquatilis, water buttercup, ranunculus, 

 or crowfoot, is one of our most abundant species, being 

 met with in streams and ponds everywhere through 

 Britain; and it would appear to be almost equally common 

 in localities so widely separated as Lapland, Canada, 

 Siberia, and Australia. The flowers are white, with yellow 

 centres. The water buttercups are by some writers 

 tarmed Batrac/iian ranunculi Greek, batrachos, a frog, 

 a sort of duplication and added emphasis, the generic 

 name Ranunculus being itself derived from the Latin 

 rana, a frog, each term, either alone or in more em- 

 phatic conjunction, being applied to mark the fondness 



