RANUNCULACE2E. 



35 



distinct genus under the name of Tranfvelteria} Jkit we cannot 

 logically preserve this genus, as we have not made one for the 

 apetalous species of Isopi/nim. 



There are, on the other hand, Banunculi whose petals assume a 

 great development, and where the 

 glandular pit at the base is provided 

 internally with a more or less project- 

 ing scale of varying form," or is itself 

 prolonged at its outer border to form a 

 nectariferous, more or less prominent 

 tube (fig. 65). In other species there 

 is a strong tendency to increase in the 

 number of petals. Sometimes one or 

 more of them are deduplicated, the 

 corolla still forming a single verticil. 

 Again, the spiral line along which the 

 petals are inserted may be prolonged so 

 as to produce a second corolla^ within 

 the other, whose elements may also undergo deduplication. Thi 



Ranunculus amplexicaulls. 



Fig. 65. 



Petal. 



1 Trautveiteria palmata Fiscn. & Mey, 

 {Ind. Sem. (1835), 22); Anim. Bot. {Ann. 

 Sc. Nat., ser. 2, iv. 335) ; Cimicifuga palmata 

 MiCHX {Fl. Am. Bor., i. 316). — Actaa palmata 

 DC, Prodr., i. 64, which we consider an ape- 

 talous Eanunctdus, is a perennial growing in 

 Japan and North America. Its palinatifid 

 leaves recal strongly those of B. aconitifolius 

 and the allied species ; and its numerous flowers, 

 whose cjTiies are united into a kind of panicle at 

 the top of a long peduncle, give it nearly the 

 aspect of certain white-flowered RanunmU (Fr. 

 Boutons d'argent), or several species of Actcea 

 and ThaUctrum. But its fruit and seeds are 

 quite those of a Ranunculus. Its Ave sepals are 

 quincuncially imbricated in the bud. The very 

 numerous stamens are the shorter as they are 

 the more exterior. The filament is folded in the 

 bud, but at the expansion of the flower becomes 

 much exserted ; it is dilated somewhat below the 

 attachment of a basifixed anther, which dehisces 

 laterally or somewhat externally. The very 

 numerous carpels are arranged spirally on the 

 superior dilated part of the receptacle; each 

 tapers above into a recurved style. 



^ The characters presented by the nectariferous 

 pit and its prolongations, or the sort of scales 

 which accompany it, have served to establish 

 several sections in the genus Ranunculus. In 

 Batrachium the pit is surmounted by what is 



termed an aglet, tliat is, as in fig. 65, it is the 

 exterior border which is prolonged into a more or 

 less concave, elongated, spoon-like body. In 

 Euranunculus GiiEN. & Gode. {Ft. Fr., i. li)), 

 there is on the other hand a more or less marked 

 projection of variable form occupying the inner 

 border of the depression ; we then say that the 

 pit is lined with a scale. Finally in R. sceleraitis 

 L. {Spec, 776,) by several authors made the 

 type of a special genus under the name of ITe- 

 catonia palustris (Loureiro, Fl. Cochin-Chin., 

 371. — SPAcn, Suit, a Buff., vii. 198), the 

 petal has neither aglet nor scale. The claw is 

 short, and above it, on the inner surface of the 

 limb, is an oval nectariferous j it with a small 

 upturned extremity. This pit is bounded by a 

 projecting rim, wanting at the upper extremity, 

 so as to resemble a horse-shoe, with the conc;\vity 

 upwards. Adanson was the first to make a 

 curious comparison between the nectariferous 

 depressions of the Ranunculi and the nectaries 

 of the Hellebores, &c. 



3 Or it may be that the outer stamens become 

 petaloid ; which comes to the same thing, since 

 after the facts established by Pater the pieces 

 of the corolla and androceum are here on one 

 continuous spiral. Hence when the trans- 

 formation goes further we have the numerous 

 species with double flowers, of which so many 

 examples have been quoted since the time of 



D 2 



