Buttercup Poisonijtg. 163 



happily it is not often met with in England, 

 unless under exceptional circumstances. On the 

 Continent it occurs by the horse eating the butter- 

 cup in the field, but in England it is never found 

 unless the horse has had an abundance of cut 

 grass given it when very hungry, after long 

 journeys, or, as I have said, had lawn-mowings 

 given it, especially if the season is dry, when the 

 buttercup is much more acrid. The species of 

 this plant popularly known as buttercup abounds 

 everywhere in our pastures, and is so inextricably 

 mingled with the herbage in some places as to 

 make it appear doubtful whether it contains any 

 acridity or causes the least annoyance to cattle, 

 which must of necessity consume more or less of 

 it while browsing in meadows where the plant 

 is most abundant. Horses with their keen dis- 

 criminating faculty uniformly avoid it, and hence 

 its effects have rarely been observed unless it 

 was given chopped up and mixed with corn. 

 There are no less than fifteen species of ranuncu- 

 lus or crowfoot, natives of these islands, and 

 common in our meadows and pastures, and most 

 of them have more or less irritating properties ; 

 those that are esteemed most irritating I have 

 named above. The genus ranunculus is charac- 

 teristic of a cold damp climate, poor wet soil, 

 and is less acrid when grown in such situation 

 than when grown in warm climates. It is asserted 

 that an annual species, the R, arvensis^ has been 

 proved to be fatal to sheep in Italy. Every part 

 of the plant is pervaded by an acrid principle, 

 which is volatile, and dissipated by heat or drying. 



