34 



NATURAL HISTOEY OF PLjINTS. 



surmounts tlie carpels, also vary much.' The RanuncvU are herbs 



with alternate leaves which may- 

 be simple or compound, com- 

 plete or incomplete ; - their 

 flowers are solitary or in ter- 

 minal cymes.' 



There are HauunciiH in which 

 the petals disappear almost en- 

 tirely, being only represented 

 by minute scales, glandular at 

 the base, identical with the 

 organs which in other families 

 we have above termed nec- 

 taries/ In some, indeed, tlie 



petals disappear entirely, and these have been erected into a quite 



Ranunculus arvensis. 



Fig. 63. Fio. 64. 



Complete fruit. Carpel opened. 



with prickles or projecting tubercles. If we 

 examine the origin of these carpels in Eamtncuhts 

 arvensis, trilohus, Pldlonotis, SiX., we see that 

 they depend only on the outer layers of the 

 pericarp, that they do not develope till late, 

 that they differ in number and size in different 

 carpels of the Siime species, and that hence 

 their importance can only be slight. Cam- 

 BASSEDES has already remarked (Flor. Ealear., 

 32) that the number of tubercles did not give 

 an absolute distinction between lianuncidiis 

 Philonotis and trilohus. 



' For this reason Bentiiam & Hooker 

 have not admitted the genera Xiphocoma 

 and Gampsoceras Stea". {Bull. Mosc, 1852, 

 t. 7), or ' Cypnanthus Si'ACii, {Suit, a Buff., 

 vii. 220), established for 11. Orienlalis h. R. 

 Cornutus is remarkable for the small number 

 of cjirpels; some llowcrs have only three or 

 four. 



•^ In R. Lingua (fig. 5'J), Flammula,(jraminrus, 

 (ilismoi'les, &c., we have simple leaves dilated at 

 the base into an imperfect slieath, the blade 

 entire or nearly so, and narrow and elongated, 

 recjilliug that of a Monocotyledon. In our com- 

 uioneHt Ranunculi the leaves have a distinct blade 

 more or less lobed, or even divided into distinct 

 hniHets. R. scilrratus offers every transition 

 betwL-en simple, even entire, leaves, and those 

 most dissected. R. Thora has on its |)edunclo 

 two K|iei'iul leavfs ditlV-riiig from one anolhcr and 

 from the cjiuline leaves. Finally, in the section 

 Itatrncttiuni there have always been rennirkcd 

 leaves provided with basilar niembranous stijiuli- 

 form expansions, varying nnich according as they 

 are aerial or entirely submerged, when they are 



reduced to capillary ramified thongs. (Sec GuEX. 

 & GODR., Flor. Fr., i. 18. t. A.) 



^ Some Ranunculi have solitary terminal 

 flowers. In others the leaves or bracts below 

 the flower bear in their axils younger flowers, 

 the immber of these floral generations varying 

 with the species. In R. Thora, which has often 

 two flowers, these Ibrm a uniparous cyme, the 

 lateral flower being the younger. In our com- 

 monest terrestrial Ranunculi the cymes thus 

 formed are always uniparous and many flowered. 

 So, too, because the flower always termiuat^s 

 the axis, we get leaf-opposed flowers in eertjiin 

 species, as in R. Flammula (see, also, on this 

 subject Gi iLLARi), Bull. Hoc. Bot. Fr., iv. 32, 

 36. 121). 



* The petals become very small and even dis- 

 appear in certain flowers ot some of our common 

 Ranunculi, as R. Auricomus {IIocwvmuv^k, Bull. 

 Sue. Bot. Fr., ix. 280). In R. apiifolius Poiu., 

 which has to A. Sr. IIilaiki: l)eeonie the tyjMJ 

 of a separate genus, under the name of Aphano- 

 slemma {Flor. Bra.i. Mcrid., i. 12. — Kndl., 

 Gen., n. ITHl), the sepals are jietaloiil, but on 

 the other himd the petals are (juite small anil 

 reduced to little rods, each with a glandular head 

 cup-slmped at the summit. The renuiining ehn- 

 nicters are those of other Ranunculi. The in- 

 deflnite stamens have l>asitixe<l extrorse anthera, 

 and each of the numerous carpels ct)ntains an 

 ascending ovule with the micropylo downwards 

 and inwards. The bracts near the (lowers are 

 ])rovided at the base with lateral membranous 

 stii>uliform expansions. Following Hk.ntha.M & 

 IlooKKli {Gen., 6), we only make Aphanoslemma 

 a section of tlie genus Ranunculus. 



