BANUNCULACE2E. 31 



same plan of growth as Aconilum Napclli(s ; that is, they have a tap- 

 root at first surmounted by a single stem, giving off from the axils 

 of its leaves branches, which are, like itself, terminated by an inflo- 

 rescence. Afterwards, when the aerial part of the plant has thus 

 accomplished its evolution it is destroyed, and the plant branches at 

 the base of the stem, developing successively, from above downwards, 

 the buds axillary to the lowest leaves or scales of the ascending axis. 

 Each of these secondary axes behaves the same way in the end, and 

 also ramifies at the base, while the main tap-root, more or less 

 hypertrophied and succulent, or else grown woody, gradually becomes 

 hollow in the centre, and persists for a variable number of years at 

 the base of the subterranean part of the plant.' The flowers are 

 grouped in simple or compound racemes, each being axillary to a 

 bract or leaf but little modified, with two lateral sterile bracts at a 

 variable height on each pedicel. In some species, as D. axillifonan 

 DC, the inflorescence simulates a spike, owing to the shortness of 

 the pedicels ; the flower being, however, still accompanied by two 

 lateral bracteolse, sometimes simple, sometimes compound like the 

 leaves. These are constantly alternate and exstipulate, with the 

 blade entire, but slightly lobed, palmatifid, or dissected." 



The species, about sixty in number, chiefly inhabit the colder, and 

 especially the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere in both 

 Worlds.^ 



' This is on the whole the mode of vegetation of In the annual species their evolution is earlv 



many perennial Ranunculads with successive ter- arrested, or is accomplished in a single season, 



minatedaxes. Inmost of the cultivated perennial ^ Some species have the leaves dissimilar to 



Larkspurs and Aconites (e.g., D.formosum and one another {A. heteropJiyUum, Wall.). 



its varieties), after removing the numerous ad- ^ Sekixge, Esq. d'tme Mon. du g. Aconitum 



ventitious roots that the subterranean portion {inMiis. Relvet.,i.{\S22,)\\b,i.\b.) — Reichb., 



produces annually, we see at the base of the Icon., iv. t. 66-100; III. spec. Aconiti (1823- 



flowering stem a swelling which bears small, 27) ; Mon. gen. Aconiti, Leips. (1820.) — Koch, 



half-withered leaves, arranged in an evident Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, iii. 371. — Grex. & 



spiral, and rows of axillary buds (also spirally Gode., Fl. Fr., i. 14, 45. — Reoel, Consp. gen. 



arranged), which are smaller as they are lower Aconiti Flor. Soss. {Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 4, 



down. The somewhat tumid bases of the second xvi. 144). — Hook. & Th., Fl. Ind., i. 47, 54. 



generation of axes bear in the same spiral order Boiss, Biagn. PI. Orient. — A. Gray, III., t. 15, 



axillary buds, which become axes of a third 16. — Walp., Sep., i. 51, 57 • ii. 743, 745 • 



generation, and so on. This recurrence in the v. 6, 7; Ann., i. 13, 14 j ii. 12, 13; iv. 



evolution of buds is very general in Ranunculacece. 22, 23. 



