CROWFOOT FAMILY. Ranunculacese. 



__ A woodland crowfoot distinguished by 



Hooked 



Crowfoot 1 * s rem a r kably hooked seed-vessels which 



Ranunculus are gathered in a cluster about inch 



recurvatus broad. The light yellow flowers with the 



Light yellow calyx (flower-envelop) curved backward, 

 April-June * \>. 



and with usually live small petals, are 



rather inconspicuous. The stem and olive green leaves 

 are hairy, the latter generally three-lobed, veiny, and 

 toothed, but the root leaves are seldom divided. 10-20 

 inches high. Common in woods everywhere. 



Another woodland or hillside species, 

 Early Butter- 

 cu _ with deep yellow flowers almost an inch 



Ranunculus broad. The plant rather low, with fine 

 fascicularis silky hairs on stem and leaf, the latter 



dark S 16611 ' and dee P l Y lobed with 3 ~ 5 

 divisions. The flower with often more 

 than five petals which are rather narrow ; the fruit- head 

 about J inch in diameter, with a slender curved spine to 

 each seed-vessel. 6-12 inches high. Common on the 

 borders of wooded hills, in the spring, from Me., south to 

 S. Car. , and west. The first buttercup of the year ; all 

 are fertilized mostly by early bees, flies, and the smaller 

 butterflies, notably Colias philodice, but the commoner 

 visitors are the small bees of the genus Halictus. 



This is the next buttercup of the spring, 

 Swamp 



Buttercup and one connne( l to swamps and low wet 

 Ranunculus grounds. The flowers are deep yellow and 

 septentrionalis fully 1 inch broad. The hollow stem is 



Deep yellow generally smooth, but sometimes fine- 

 Late April- July f . ,. ., , 

 hairy ; the deep green leaves are divided 



into three leaflets, each distinctly stemmed, and three- 

 lobed, or only the terminal one stemmed ; the uppermost 

 leaves are long, narrow, and toothless. This buttercup 

 is very variable in both size and foliage, its branches are 

 upright or reclining, and its leaves coarsely cleft and 

 divided. 1-2 feet high, or more. Common in moist 

 rich ground everywhere. Like most of the other but- 

 tercups, this one depends mainly upon the beelike flies 

 (Bombylius) and the little bees of the family Andrenidce 

 for fertilization. 



140 



