BANUNCULACEJE. 



39 



detached. In some species with prostrate stems, such 7?. rrpem 

 (fig. 69), adventitious roots 

 are developed at the base 

 of the buds borne by these 

 runners ; and it is on a level 

 with these roots that the 

 base of the bud swells into 

 a reservoir of nutritive 

 juices. In other species 

 the subterranean organs 

 are developed much in 

 the same way as the roots 

 (Fr. paffes) of the Ane- 

 mones} Others, again, have 

 the bases of the stem and 

 the branches swoUen into 

 bulbs as in B. hdbosus^ 

 which takes its name from 

 this peculiarity. In the 

 Ficar'm it is the buds axil- 

 lary to certain aerial leaves which swell at the base, and are after- 

 wards detached like bulbels.^ Finally, in other species, like E. asiaticm 



Ranunctdus asiaticus. 

 Fia. 70. 

 Rootstock. 



^ In R. acris, for example, the principal axis 

 ends in a flower, as do its ramifications. Quite 

 at the base of tbis stem are leaves whicb are 

 destroyed early, and which have buds in their 

 axils. These buds in turn develope aerial 

 branches which are to bear later on, iu the axils 

 of their lower leaves, the third generation of 

 axes. Thus the base of the stem ramifies and 

 becomes a rhizome like that of an Anemone, 

 possessing none but adventitious roots. It is hi 

 the basilar portion of each bud, before the time 

 for its elongatiou, that the nutritive juices accu- 

 mulate, which are afterwards to aid in its de- 

 velopment. The basilar portions of the divisions 

 of the rhizome are more or less woody and dry, 

 and they may even separate from the mother 

 stock by destruction of tissue, so as to form new 

 individuals beside it. 



- In these species we only have an exaggera- 

 tion of the phenomenon of the accumulation of 

 nutritive juices in the base of the stem, and then 

 in the base of the branches axillary to the lower 

 leaves. If then we consider this swelling as a 

 bulb, it belongs to the category of solid bulbs. 

 Clos attributes this swelling to the collar 

 {Ann. Sc. Nat., ser, 3, xiii. 1). GEENiiiK 



(Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr., ii. 369, 721), whose opinion 

 we have said (Adansonia, iv. 33, note), should be 

 wholly adopted, refers it to the base of the 

 stem. 



^ In Ficaria, of which the different modes of 

 vegetation and the discussions to which their in- 

 terpretation has given rise, have been reported by 

 Clos in the work above referred to {Ann. Sc, 

 Kat., ser. 3, xiii. 131), these axillary buds 

 become bulbels, the tumid portion of which 

 answers to the equally swollen succulent base of 

 the subterranean buds of other Ramniculi. Most 

 botanists arc at variance as to the true nature of 

 these swellings. What has proved to us that 

 they are of the nature of axes is that they may 

 possess two buds instead of one, and that in other 

 cases they may bear a normal leaf with a bud 

 in its axil. When these buds are detached from 

 the mother plant, like those of other species, 

 they are nourished by adventitious roots. 

 Ikmiscii has shown that we should not confound 

 these bulbels with tumid axillary roots. Bel- 

 noMME has described {Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr., ix. 

 241) in Ji. Lingua a fact quite analogous to 

 what is seen in Ficaria. He says that the 

 axillary buds of the submerged part of the 



