g5 CALlllA PALUSTRIS. MARSH-MARIGOLD. 



In our country the marsh-marigold extends down to South 

 Carolina, where, according to Chapman, it is found in cedar- 

 swamps; on the Pacific shore, however, it is not found in California. 

 It becomes rather abundant as it leaves South Carolina on its 

 northward journey, and from the north extends across the cond- 

 nent to Asia, being one of those plants which makes a circuit of 

 the globe. As usual in widely distributed species it exhibits some 

 variations at times, and though in such cases it is usual to say 

 that the variations are brought about by " climate " or " location," 

 it is by no means clear that this is the case, or indeed that any 

 one has yet discovered what is the law that induces these varia- 

 tions. In some Instances they are found with the leaves toothed 

 or notch-edged, as in our plate ; at other times plants are observed 

 w^ith the edges quite entire. Then cases occur where the leaves 

 are on long petioles, and again where they are sessile, that is to 

 say without leaf-stalks. Sometimes the stems are quite upright, 

 and at others they have been found trailing over the mud, and 

 then they differ, as already noted, in the number of the floral 

 envelopes. In past times when the range and the limit of good 

 species were not known as now, many of these forms were 

 regarded as good species, and had distinctive appellations. Mr. 

 Sereno Watson, In his Bibliographical Index, gives the names of 

 nine so-called species which are all regarded now as the same as 

 Caltha palustris, and are classed as synonyms, — Mr. Watson 

 supposing that perhaps one Siberian form may be worth retaining 

 as a distincdy marked variety. Somedmes all the stamens revert 

 to petals, and then we have of course a double flower, in which 

 condidon It Is much prized by cuklvators who may have a rather 

 damp piece of ground to grow it in. In Mr. Darwin's "Forms 

 of Flowers " he notes a case on the authority of a French 

 author, Lecoq, where pistils and all had turned to petals, making 

 a complete male flower, and that the plants which bore these 

 were mingled with plants having the normal hermaphrodite 

 flowers. Mr. Darwin regards this as remarkable from his point 

 of view. 



