6 RANUNCULACE^E. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 



M. ARISTATDS, Benth., may be found where our boundary touches Utah 

 and Southern Idaho. It is characterized by its akenes being beaked with a 

 divergent persistent style nearly equalling the akene. 



5. RANUNCULUS, L. CROWFOOT. BUTTERCUP. 



Sepals usually 5. Petals 3 to 15. Akenes mostly flattened, pointed. 

 Mostly perennial herbs. Flowers either solitary or somewhat corymbed, 

 usually yellow and often showy. The leaves are various, and those of the 

 stem alternate. 



1. Aquatic herbs with the submersed leaves, if any, finely divided : petals 

 white, the daw yellow : akenes transversely wrinkled. 



1. R. aquatilis, L., var. trichophyllus, Chaix. Stems long and 

 coarsely filiform : leaves all submersed and cut into numerous soft capillary 

 segments, which usually collapse when withdrawn from the water: akenes in a 

 close globular head. Common throughout the continent in stagnant or slow- 

 flowing waters. 



Var. stagnatilis, DC. Leaves all under water, the divisions and sub- 

 divisions short, spreading in one roundish plane, rigid, keeping their form without 

 collapsing when withdrawn from the water. The R. divaricatus of Gray's 

 Manual and the Western reports. Rarer than the former, but with the same 

 range. 



2. Terrestrial herbs, but often growing in wet places, mostly erect : sepals green, 



rarely yellow : petals yellow : akenes neither wrinkled nor hispid. 



* All the leaves undivided, the margins entire. 



2. R. Flammula, L., var. reptans, Gray. Glabrous throughout : stems 

 filiform, creeping and rooting at the joints : leaves mostly lanceolate and acute 

 at each end : petals half longer than the sepals : akenes few in a small globu- 

 lar head, plump ; beak very short and curved. Found in Colorado, but most 

 common northward, where it extends across the continent. 



3. , R. alismsefolius, Geyer. Glabrous throughout : stems nearly or quite 

 erect, 6 to 16 inches high, rather stout : leaves broadly lanceolate, blunt at apex : 

 petals conspicuously nerved, nearly twice as long as the sepals : akenes slightly 

 flattened, pointed with a nearly or quite straight beak, crowded in a compact 

 ovate head. The form called var. montanus, Watson, is the typical form. 

 Rocky Mountains and westward. The Eastern species bearing this name is 

 R. ambigens, Watson. 



4. R. Macailleyi, Gray. Leaves Ungulate, the truncate apex 3-toothed ; 

 radical ones (early ones oblong) tapering into a petiole; cauline ones sessile: 

 sepals very dark villous outside : petals golden : carpels tapering into a short 

 subulate style : fruit unknown, though head of akeiies probably oblong. 

 Proc. Am. Acad. xv. 45. Mountains in San Juan Co., Colorado. The flowers 

 resemble those of R. nivalis, but the remarkable foliage readily distinguishes 

 it from every other species. 



* * Radical leaves undivided : stem leaves, if any, toothed or lobed : glabrous 

 perennials, 3 to 6 inches high. 



5. R. Cymbalaria, Pursh. Flowering stems or scapes leafless, 1 to 

 7-flowered : leaves broadly ovate or ovate-cordate, coarsely crenate, clustered at 



