68 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



of the plants for low-lying damp ground. The blossoms 

 appear about the middle of May, and ordinarily in such 

 profusion as to make the whole surface of the river or 

 pond one sheet of white. The water buttercup is subject 

 to much variation, more or less permanent, and on these 

 modifications of forms different writers have based certain 

 specific differences ; one author recognising seven species, 

 another six, while a third limits himself to one, but admits 

 that it has three distinct varieties. The one figured in 

 our illustration is the species or sub -species known as 

 R.fluitans. It is only found in running water; all the 

 leaves are submerged, and deeply cut into very low and 

 about parallel segments, while in other sub-species found 

 in still water, besides the submerged and finely-cut leaves 

 there are floating leaves of a form very similar to the 

 radical leaf of the goldilocks. The various features on 

 which some botanists found specific differences are so 

 inconstant, and appear to depend so much upon the cir- 

 cumstances in which the plant is found, that the question 

 how far the species may be split up must always remain 

 an open one. 



