RAN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY . 



RAN 



445 







raised. This is the practice in the Isle of Skye, and other 

 places, especially in the wet and boggy parts of heaths and 

 commons, where it flowers from June to September. It is 

 found also in Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, and Germany, 

 on the banks of lakes. 



2. Ranunculus Lingua; Great Spearivort. Leaves lan- 

 ceolate, acuminate ; stem erect, many-flowered. This also is 

 an acrid herb, with a perennial root like the preceding ; and 

 likewise varies with serrate leaves. The flowers are large, 

 and of a bright golden colour. It flowers in July, and gene- 

 rally grows in muddy ditches or bogs by the sides of lakes. 

 It is reckoned rather a rare plant in England, but occurs in 

 many places, as between Rotherhithe and Deptford, near 

 London ; on Iver heath near Uxbridge ; in several parts of 

 Norfolk ; on Feversham Moor, near Cambridge, and in the 

 isle of Ely ; at Goldington and Oakley in Bedfordshire ; in 

 ditches near a pool of water called Brayford in Lincolnshire; 

 on the banks of the Cherwell near King's Mill, in Oxford- 

 shire; in the bogs on Malvern Chase, Worcestershire; in 

 Kiveson Pool, near Stafford ; on the sides of Ancott Pool in 

 Salop ; in several pa r ts of the north of England and Scot- 

 land ; at Duddington Loch, near Edinburgh; and about 

 Restennet in Angus-shire. * 



3. Ranunculus Nodiflorus. Leaves ovate, petioled ; flow- 

 ers sessile. This is found about Paris, and in the marshy 

 places of the island of Sicily. 



4. Ranunculus Gramineus ; Grassy Crowfoot. Leaves 

 linear-lanceolate, many-nerved, sessile ; stem upright, few- 

 flowered, very smooth ; root perennial. It is distinguished 

 from the next species by its yellow flowers and tuberous root. 

 Native of mountainous situations in the south of France. 

 It flowers in April and May; and is easily propagated by 

 parting the roots in autumn, 



5. Ranunculus Pyrseneus; Pyrcencan Crowfoot. Leaves 

 linear, undivided ; stem upright, striated, subbiflorous. Root 

 bulbous ; flowers white. Native of the Alps, Pyrenees, and 

 Switzerland, Carinthia, Dauphiny, &c. 



6. Ranunculus Parnassifolius ; Parnassia-leaved Crowfoot. 

 Le.aves subovate, nerved, marked with lines, quite entire, 

 petioled; flowers umbelled, of a brilliant white colour. It 

 varies with a stem scarcely two inches high, with only one, 

 two, or three flowers at most. Native of the south of Europe, 

 in alpine situations. It may be easily propagated, by parting 

 the roots in autumn. 



7. Ranunculus Amplexicaulis ; Plantain-leaved Croivfoot. 

 Leaves ovate, acuminate, embracing ; stem many-flowered ; 

 roots in bundles. In colour, the leaves differ from most 

 others of the genus, being of a grayer or more glaucous hue, 

 which, joined to the delicate whiteness of the flowers, renders 

 this species very desirable in a collection of hardy herbaceous 

 plants, more especially as it occupies little space, may be 

 easily pr.opagated by parting its roots in autumn, and has 

 no tendency to injure the growth of others. It flowers in 

 April and May, and is a native of the Appennine and Pyre- 

 nean mountains. 



8. Ranunculus Bullatus; Portugal Crowfoot. Leaves 

 ovate, serrate; scape naked, one-flowered. Native of Por- 

 tugal, the Isle of Candia, and Barbary. 



9. Ranunculus Ficaria; Pilewort, or Lesser Celandine. 

 Leaves cordate, angular, petioled; petals numerous. This 

 plant is easily distinguished by its roots, formed of many 

 knobs or tubers, shaped like the Fig ; hence its trivial name 

 The tops of these tubers send forth many small fibres. The 

 whole plant is smooth. It differs from the Crowfoots in the 

 number of the petals in the corolla, and leaflets in the calix 

 yet agrees with them in the same general nature and habit 



as well as in the nectary or little scale at the base of the. 

 >etals, so that it seems to be of.the same natural genus with 

 hem. In the spring, almost every grove, thicket, and hedge- 

 )ottom, is enamelled with the glossy golden flowers of this 

 )lant; but when they have been exposed a few days to the 

 Bright sun, they become white, and fall off soon afterwards. 

 It blows earlier than the Crowfoots, and is therefore liable 

 ;o have its parts of fructification injured by the inclemency 

 of the weather ; to secure it from which, it has the power of 

 closing its petals in a much greater degree, and in this state 

 t is usually found from five in the evening till nine in the 

 morning, and in wet weather. At its first appearance in the 

 spring, this plant is small, and extends but little ; but in the 

 month of May, particularly by the side of moist ditches, it 

 jrows much more luxuriantly, and in this state puts forth 

 small bulbs like grains of wheat from the bosoms of the 

 leaves : these, as the stalks lie on the ground, get into the 

 earth, and become the tuberous roots of young plants. Thus 

 the plant readily propagates itself; and this providential pro- 

 vision is the more necessary, because the seeds usually prove 

 abortive. Linneus says, that the young leaves, boiled as 

 greens in the spring, are eaten by the common people in some 

 parts of Sweden. Though it is milder than most of the genus, 

 it retains something of that acrimony which many of the spe- 

 cies possess in a high degree. The particular form of the 

 roots probably recommended this plant as a cure for the piles : 

 and this fancied quality was the origin of the English name. 

 The roots are sometimes washed bare by the rains, and this 

 induced the ignorant and superstitious to imagine that it 

 rained wheat, to which the uncovered tubercles bear a little 

 resemblance. It choaks the plants which grow near it, and 

 ought to be extirpated, as cattle will not eat it, from our 

 meadows. Nothing discourages its increase more than coal 

 or wood ashes, which are both at the same time excel- 

 lent dresses for meadow-land. It is sometimes seen in gar- 

 dens with, a double root; and is common in meadows, 

 orchards, and plantations, flowering in February, and con- 

 tinuing through March and a great part of April. 



10. Ranunculus Salsuginosus ; Salt-marsh Crowfoot. 

 Leaves ovate, somewhat cordate, toothed at the extremity ; 

 stem creeping, thread-shaped; flowers solitary, yellow, as 

 big as our common Crowfoots. The root sends out many 

 runners. Found on the banks of the Neva, and in the salt 

 plains of Siberia, beyond the lake Baical. 



11. Ranunculus Thora ; Kidney-leaved Crowfoot. Leaves 

 kidney-form, subtrilobate, crenate ; the radical ones on long 

 stalks. Root round, brownish, from one to two inches long, 

 perpendicular, the thickness of a straw, and permanent, in 

 its whole length putting forth many fusiform, long, pale, sub- 

 imbricate fibres ; stem solitary, simple, a span high, termi- 

 nating in one, rarely more, long-stalked golden flowers, half 

 an inch wide. The root of this plant is said to be extremely 

 acrid and poisonous. It flowers in May and June. Native 

 of the Alps of Switzerland and Austria ; the Pyrenees, Dau- 

 phiny, Piedmont, and Silesia. 



12. Ranunculus Pusillus; Diminutive Crowfoot. Plant 

 glabrous ; leaves petiolate ; inferior leaves ovate, dentate ; 

 superior leaves linear-lanceolate, dentated at the tip; pedun- 

 cles alternate, solitary, one-flowered ; petals pale yellow. 

 This is a small species, with exceeding small flowers ; and 

 flowers from June to August. Native of North America. 



13. Ranunculus Filiformis ; Slender Creeping Croivfoot. 

 Plant glabrous, small ; stems filiform, creeping, geniculate ; 

 joints with one flower each ; leaves linear, subulate, obtuse. 

 Grows in inundated places on the river St. Lawrence, Hud- 

 son's Bay, and Labrador, and flowers in June and July. 



