40 RANUNCULACE^. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



1. T. palm^ta, Fisch. & Mey. Stems 2-3° high; root-leaves large, 

 5- 11-lobed, the lobes toothed and cut. — Moist ground along streamlets, Md. 

 to S. Ind., and south to Ga. 



7. ADONIS, DiU. 



Sepals and petals (5 - 1 6) flat, unappendaged, deciduous. Achenes numer- 

 ous, in a head, rugose-reticulated. .Seed suspended. — Herbs with finely dis- 

 sected alternate leaves and showy flowers. {"ASwvis, a favorite of Venus,"after 

 his death changed into a flower.) 



A. autujinAlis, L. a low leafy annual, with scarlet or crimson flowers, 

 darker in the centre. — Sparingly naturalized from Europe. 



8. MYOStlRUS, Dill. Mouse-tail. 



Sepals 5, spurred at the base. Petals 5, small and narrow, raised on a slen- 

 der claw, at the summit of which is a nectariferous hollow. Stamens 5 - 20. 

 Achenes numerous, somewhat 3-sided, crowded on a very long and slender 

 spike-like receptacle (whence the name, from fxds, a mouse, and ovpd, a tail), 

 the seed suspended. — Little annuals, with tufted narrowly linear-spatulate 

 root-leaves, and naked 1 -flowered scapes. Flowers small, greenish. 



1. M. miniinus, L. Fruiting spike 1 -2' long; achenes quadrate, blunt. 

 — Alluvial ground, 111. and Ky., thence south and west. (Eu.) 



9. RANUNCULUS, Tourn. Crowfoot. Buttercup. 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, flat, with a little pit or scale at the base inside. Achenes 

 numerous, in a head, mostly flattened, pointed; the seed erect. — Annuals or 

 perennials ; stem-leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or somewhat corymbed, 

 yellow, rarely white. (Sepals and petals rarely only 3, the latter often more 

 than 5. Stamens occasionally few.) — (A Latin name for a little frog ; applied 

 by Pliny to these plants, the aquatic species growing where frogs abound.) 



R. FicXria, L. (representing the § Ficaria), which has tuberous-thickened 

 roots, Caltha-like leaves, and scape-like peduncles bearing a 3-sepalous and 

 8-9-petalous yellow flower, has been found as an escape from gardens about 

 New York and Pliiladelphia. 



§ 1. BATRACHIUM. Petals with a spot or naked pit at base, white, or only 

 the claw yellow ; achenes marginless, transversely wrinkled ; aquatic or sub- 

 aquatic perennials, with the immersed foliage repeatedly dissected {mostly by 

 threes) into capillary divisions ; peduncles \-Jlowered, opposite the leaves. 

 * Receptacle hairy. 



1. R. eircinktUS, Sibth. (Stiff Water-Crowfoot.) Zea res all under 

 water and sessile, with broad conspicuous stipules, the divisions and subdi- 

 visions short, spreading in one roundish plane, rigid, not collapsing ichen with- 

 drawn from the water. (E. divaricatus, Man., not Schrank.) — Ponds and slow 

 streams, Maine and Vt., to Iowa, north and westward, much rarer than the 

 next. June - Aug. (Eu.) 



2. R. aquatilis, L., var. trichoph^Uus, Gray. (Common White 

 Water-Crowfoot.) Leaves all under water and mostly petioled, their capil- 

 lary divisions and subdivisions rather long and soft, usually collapsing more or 

 less when withdrawn from the water; petiole rather narrowly dilated. — Com- 



