394 RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 



1. RANtlNCULUS [Tourn.] L. CROWFOOT BUTTERCUP. 



Annuals or perennials ; stem-leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or somewhat 

 corymbed, yellow, rarely white. (Sepals and petals rarely only 3, the latter often 

 more than 5. Stamens occasionally few.) (A Latin name for a little frog; 

 applied by Pliny to these plants, the aquatic species growing where frogs abound. ) 



1. FICARIA Boiss. Hoots tuber ous- thickened ; sepals 3; petals about 8, 

 yellow, with a free scale over the honey gland. 



1. R. FIC\RIA L. (LESSER CELANDINE.) Glabrous and somewhat succu- 

 lent; leaves basal on long stoutish petioles, ovate, rounded, deeply cordate, sub- 

 ore n ate ; flowers scapose, 2 cm. in diameter. (Ficaria Karst.) Wet places, 

 occasional ; Mass, to D. C. Apr., May. (Introd. from Eurasia.) 



2. BATRACHIUM DC. Petals with a spot or naked pit atlxt.r. v-Jn'tc, or 

 only the claw yellow; achenes marginless, transrerxchj crinkled; aq until- 

 or subaquatic perennials, with the immersed foliage repeatedly dissected 

 (mostly by threes') into capillary divisions ; peduncles 1-flowered, opposite 

 the leaves. 



* Receptacle hairy. 



2. R. circinatus Sibth. (STIFF WATER C.) Leaves all under water and 

 sessile, with broad conspicuous stipules, the divisions and subdivisions short, 

 spreading in one roundish plane, rigid, not collapsing when withdrawn from the 

 water. (R. divaricatus auth., not Sch rank ace. to Hiern.) Ponds and slow 

 streams, Vt. to Pa., la., north w. and westw., rather rare. (Eu.) 



3. R. aquatilis L., var. capillaceus DC. (COMMON WHITE WATER C.) 

 Leaves all under water and mostly petioled, their capillary divisions and suit- 

 divisions rather long and soft, usually collapsing more or less when \riih<ir<tir,, 

 from the water ; petiole rather narrowly dilated. (R. aquatilis, var. tri<'h(>j'>It!/I- 

 lus Gray ; Batrachium trichophyllum Bosch ; B. Jlaccidum Rupr. ; B. Drone tn 

 Nym. ; and B. confervoides auth., not Fries.) Common, especially in slow- 

 flowing waters, the eastern form with more soft and flaccid leaves. June- 

 Aug. (Eu.) Var. CAESPiT6sus DC. A dwarf terrestrial variety or possibly 

 mere state, rooting at the nodes, the small leaves somewhat fleshy, with broader 

 rigid divisions. S. 111. (Schneck), and westw. (Eu.) 



* * Receptacle glabrous ; no submersed leaves. 



4. R. HEDERACEUS L. Rooting freely in shallow water ; leaves all reniform, 

 angulate-lobed. {Batrachium S. F. Gray.) - Fresh-water marshes, Nfd. ; 



. s. Md. ; s. e. Va. (Nat. from Eu.) 



3. HALODES Gray. Petals yellow, with nectariferous pit and scale; carpels 

 thin-walled, striate, in a subcylindric head ; scapose, spreading by runners. 



"). R. Cymbalaria Pursh. (SEA-SIDE C.) Glabrous; scapes 4-:^ cm. high, 

 1-7-flowered; leaves clustered at the root and on the joints of the long rooting 

 runners, roundish-heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, crenate, rather fleshy, long- 

 petioled ; petals 5-8. (Oxygraphis Prantl.) Lab. to N. J., also along the Great 

 Lakes and in alkaline soil of the interior. June- Aug. (Greenl., Eurasia.) 



Var. alpinus Hook. Dwarf; leaves 3-toothed, only 3-0 mm. broad. Cape 

 Breton I., N. S., e. Que., and norihw. 



4. EURANtJNCULUS Gray. Petals with a little scale at tin- base, yellow; 



achenes nerveless. 



* Achenes smooth, or nearly so ; mostly perennial. 

 H- Aquatic; immersed leaves Jiliformly dissected ; as in I'atraehiiun. 



'. R. delphinif61ius Torr. (YELLOW WATER C.) Steins floating or im- 

 mersed, witli the leaves all repeatedly 3-forked into long filiform divisions, or 

 sometimes em-ping in the mud (perennial by rooting from the nodes, if at all) ; 

 petals f>-S, deep bri-ht yellow, 8-12 mm. long, much larger than the sepals ; 



