3oo HOUSE, GARDEN, AND FIELD 



flower-stalk furrowed, and both have spreading sepals. 

 The creeping and bulbous buttercups both have furrowed 

 flower-stalks, but in the creeping buttercup the sepals 

 are spreading, while in the bulbous buttercup they are 

 reflexed. We have now only to distinguish the goldilocks 

 buttercup from the upright buttercup, and this is not 

 difficult. The honey-gland at the base of the petal is 

 covered by a small scale in all buttercups except the 

 water-buttercups, the goldilocks buttercup, and the 

 celery-leaved buttercup. This distinction will separate 

 the upright buttercup, which has the scale, from the 

 goldilocks buttercup, which has none. 



Small differences like these make it possible to arrange 

 all the buttercups in such a table as is given in every 

 modern manual of British flowering plants. But no 

 linear series can show all the relations which the botanist 

 traces between these species. It is possible to make a 

 nearer approach to a natural arrangement by grouping 

 the species map-fashion, as in Diagram B. 



Diagram B. 

 THE BUTTERCUP GENUS. 



Water-buttercup. 

 Celery-leaved buttercup. Spearwort-buttercups. 



Goldilocks. 

 Upright buttercup. 



Creeping buttercup. Bulbous buttercup. 



Hairy buttercup. 

 Small-flowered buttercup. 

 Corn buttercup. Celandine-buttercup. 



