BANUNCULACE/E. 



'61 



Cascdea} is the name given to some American Jla/n/ncxli in which 

 the number of pieces of the perianth may be reduced to three in 

 each wliorl. But this reduction is not constant,'- and besides, all the 

 other characters are those of Banunculm, so that we can hardly erect 

 Casalea into a separate section. 



Ranunculus Ficaria L. (fig. 68) has been equally considered as 

 the type of a distinct genus,^ be- 

 cause its flowers are trimerous, and 

 its corolla is double, the pieces of 

 the inner whorl being altogether 

 or in part deduplicated.' But these 

 characters, which may have for- 

 merly appeared sufficient to con- 

 stitute a genus,' are remarked, the 

 one in Casalea, and the other in the Banunculi strictly so called 

 mentioned above, without our being able now-a-days to give them 

 a generic value. 



We have stronger reasons for not separating Oxi/(/raphi.f generi- 

 cally from the BammcuU, for if we observe the same multiplication 

 of organs in its corolla, yet the flower is still on a quinary tj^^e, and 

 we cannot attribute much importance to the usual persistence of one 

 part of the perianth. 



Manunculus Ficaria. 



Fig. 68. 



Longitudinal section of flowj 



1 Casalea A. S. H., FIoi: Bras. Mer., i. 6, 1. 1. 

 — Endl., Gen., n. 4782. 



» Messrs. Triaxa & Plai.-chos (Aim. Sc. 

 Nat., ser. 4, xvii. 12, note) already recognised 

 the variability of this character. 



3 Ficaria DiLL., Nov. Gen., 108, t. 5.— DC. 

 Prodr., i. 44.— Spach, Suit, a Buff., vii. 196.— 

 EXDL., Gen., n. 4785. — F. ranunculoides 

 McEXCH, Meth., 215. — Ranunculus Ficaria L., 

 Spec, 774. — Clos, Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, xvii. 

 129. The whole of this work, which is of quite 

 a special character, should be read. 



■• M, Clos (/. cit., 138) counts from five to 

 eleven. Usually there are three petals in the 

 outer corolla, and the inner petals are in three 

 alternating groups, one of three, one of two, and 

 the third of a sinjzle piece. (See Pater, Orga- 

 nog., 254. — H. Bx., Adansonia, ii. 202.) 



^ DiLLEN established the genus especially on 

 account of the trimerous character of the co- 

 rolla. Adanson preserved it, says M. Clos 

 (?. cit., 140)under the name ofScotanum (C^salp. 

 ex Akans., Fam. 459), borrowed from Beun- 

 FKLS. Payer and ourselves maintained it 

 (I. cit., 210) on account of its trimerous type, 

 the deduplicatiou of the corolla, and the position 



of the sepals with regard to the axis. The facts 

 we have since observed in Casalea, the Pajonies, 

 &c., have necessarily modified our original view. 



fi Oxygraphis Buxge, Fl. Altaic, suppl., 46. 

 — ExDL., Gen., n. 4785i, suppl., i. 141 9. — Hook. & 

 Tn., Fl. Ltd., i. 27.— Walp., Ann., iv. 31.— B. 

 H., Gen., 6, n. 12. In the flowers of O. 

 glacialis Bge. {Ficaria glacialis Fiscir.), there 

 are five sepals in a quincunx and often ten petals 

 forming a corolla of two alternating whorls, and 

 bearing a thickening in which is a glandular 

 depression at their base. The stamens are in- 

 definite with extrorse anthers ; the carpels each 

 enclose a single ascending ovule with the micro- 

 pyle external. In 0. polypetala Hook. & Th. 

 {Ranunetdus polypetalus Rotle, III., t. xi. fig. 2. 

 — CallianthemumFndlickeri Walp.) the flowers 

 are similar, but have from fifteen to twenty petals, 

 each of the inner ones being replaced by a group 

 of two, three, or four. Hence we may consider 

 the Oxygraphids as Ficarice, whose flowers are 

 formed on a quinary type ; and just as we cannot 

 separate the two above-mentioned species of 

 Oxygraphis generically from one another, so we 

 cannot remove them from the Ranunculi. (See 

 Clos, Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, xiii. 141.) 



