294 HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



for the water-crowfoot, the spearworts, the buttercups 

 and the celandine. The Latin name Ranunculus is in 

 general use ; shall we translate this by Buttercup, and 

 apply that name to all the Ranunculi ? Then we may 

 speak of the water-buttercup, the two spearwort-buttercups, 

 the upright buttercup, the celandine-buttercup and so 

 on. This will at least avoid confusion, though we may 

 be sorry to spoil pretty and long-established popular 

 names. 



The Globe-flower (Trollius), which grows wild in some 

 of our hilly districts, and is often seen in gardens, looks 

 like a buttercup too. The sepals and petals have much 

 of the general appearance of those of a buttercup, and 

 the stamens are quite similar, but there are a great many 

 petals, and the carpels are not like those of a buttercup. 

 They are only five in number, and instead of each con- 

 taining a single seed, they are many-seeded. If we look 

 closely at the honey-gland, we find that it is not a promi- 

 nence but a sunk space. Here the difference from the 

 buttercups, especially in the structure of the carpels, 

 is so considerable that we may well hesitate to consider 

 a globe-flower a kind of buttercup. Hellebores have the 

 same kind of carpels as the globe-flower, and must probably 

 be associated with them. 



Can a wood anemone be placed among the buttercups ? 

 Not without spoiling the definition of the genus, for the 

 six white leaves of the flower have no honey-glands at 

 their base. Indeed there is reason to believe that they 

 are not petals at all, but sepals, and that the true petals 

 have disappeared. At all events there is only one set 

 of floral leaves. But since the anemones have numerous 

 stamens and numerous one-seeded carpels, we must keep 

 them near to the buttercups, if not in the same genus. 



What about the marsh marigold (Caltha), which looks 

 very like an exaggerated buttercup ? This, too, has no 

 petals, but only petal-like sepals. There are many carpels, 

 but they are not one-seeded ; when ripe, they burst 



