BUTTERCUPS ; A STUDY OF SPECIES 2g5 



lengthwise, and show a number of seeds within. Marsh 

 marigold, too, would spoil the definition of the genus, if 

 admitted, and by the structure of its carpels it is seen 

 rather to belong to the hellebores, which have usually 

 petal-like sepals, small petals, sometimes disappearing 

 altogether, and many-seeded fruits, bursting lengthwise 

 when ripe. 



Thus we recognise by the comparison of a number of 

 flowers that there are outside the buttercup genus several 

 allied species, which cannot be included without spoiling 

 the genus. Let us put them in separate genera, the most 

 natural that we can discover, and then associate all in one 

 large assemblage. We might give the name of Ranunculus 

 family to the large assemblage, which includes several 

 genera. Ranunculus will of course be one of these ; 

 clematis makes another distinct type, anemone a third, 

 and hellebore or Caltha a fourth. All the British species 

 of the buttercup family come near to one or other of these 

 four types. 



Diagram A. 

 RANUNCULUS FAMILY.' 



CLEMATIS. ANEMONES. 



BUTTERCUPS. 

 HELLEBORES. 



It was only by degrees and after many failures that 

 botanists came to recognise the Buttercup family as a 

 natural assemblage. Two hundred years ago John Ray, 

 the greatest naturalist of his age, put together the butter- 

 cups, the cinquefoils and the strawberries, all of them 

 being what he called polyspermous, i.e. with many distinct 

 carpels to one flower. Cinquefoils are often very like 

 buttercups ; they may have five sepals, five yellow petals, 



