40 RANTJNCULACE.&. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



1. T. palm^ta, Fisch. Mey. Stems 2-3 high; root-leaves large, 

 5- 11-lobed, the lobes toothed and cut. Moist ground along streamlets, Md. 

 to S. Ind., and south to Ga. 



7. ADONIS, Dill. 



Sepals and petals (5-16) flat, unappendaged, deciduous. Achenes numer- 

 ous, in a head, rugose-reticulated. Seed suspended. Herbs with finely dis- 

 sected alternate leaves and showy flowers. ("A5j/xs, a favorite of Venus/after 

 his death changed into a flower.) 



A. AUTUMNALIS, L. A low leafy annual, with scarlet or crimson flowers, 

 darker in the centre. Sparingly naturalized from Europe. 



8. MYOSURUS, Dill. MOUSE-TAIL. 



Sepals 5, spurred at the base. Petals 5, small and narrow, raised on a slen- 

 der claw, at the summit of which is a nectariferous hollow. Stamens 5 - 20. 

 Achenes numerous, somewhat 3-sided, crowded on a very long and slender 

 spike-like receptacle (whence the name, from pus, a mouse, and ovpd, a tail), 

 the seed suspended. Little annuals, with tufted narrowly linear-spatulate 

 root-leaves, and naked 1 -flowered scapes. Flowers small, greenish. 



1. M. minimus, L. Fruiting spike 1 -2' long; achenes quadrate, blunt. 

 Alluvial ground, 111. and Ivy., thence south and west. (Eu.) 



9. RANUNCULUS, Tourn. CROWFOOT. BUTTERCUP. 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, flat, with a little pit or scale at the base inside. Achenes 

 numerous, in a head, mostly flattened, pointed; the seed erect. 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.) 



R. FICARIA, L. (representing the Ficaria), which has tuberous-thickened 

 roots, Caltha-like leaves, and scape-like peduncles bearing a 3-sepalous and 

 8 - 9-petalous yellow flower, has been found as an escape from gardens about 

 New York and Philadelphia. 



1. BATRACHIUM. Petals with a spot or naked pit at base, white, or only 

 the claw yellow; achenes mar ginless, transversely wrinkled ; aquatic or sub- 

 aquatic perennials, with the immersed foliage repeatedly dissected (mostly by 

 threes) into capillary divisions; peduncles \-Jlowered, opposite the leaves. 

 # Receptacle hairy. 



1. R. CircintU8, Sibth. (STIFF WATER-CROWFOOT.) Leaves all under 

 water and sessile, with broad conspicuous stipules, the divisions and subdi- 

 visions short, spreading in one roundish plane, rigid, not collapsing when irith- 

 drawnfrom the water. (R. divaricatus, Man., not SchranJc.) Ponds and slow 

 streams, Maine and Vt., to Iowa, north and westward, much rarer than the 

 next. June - Aug. (Eu.) 



2. R. aqutilis, L., var. trichoph^llus, Gray. (COMMON WHITE 

 WATER-CROWFOOT.) Leaves all under water and mostly petioled, their capil- 

 lary divisions ana subdivisions rather long and soft, usually collapsing more or 

 less when withdraw '/PW theirater; petiole rather narrowly dilated. Com- 



