RANUNCULACEJE. 



Sect. I. ANTHORA. 



Root turnip-shaped. Leaves divided into many linear lobes. 

 Flowers light yellow, sometimes variegated with blue. Sepals 

 persistent. Helmet convex or semicircular. Ovaries 5. 



31. A. Anthora Linn, sp.pl. 751. Jacq. austr. t. 382. Reichen- 

 bach aconit. Anthora vulgaris Clus. hist. ii. p. 98. f. 2. 

 Thickets in the mountainous parts of Europe ; Siberia. 



All the parts more or less downy. Stem from 6 inches to 2 feet 

 high, simple or branched at the upper part. Leaves palmate, repeatedly 

 cut into linear acuminate divisions. Flowers racemose or panicled. 

 Sepals and petals permanent. Petals with scarcely any bag, a thick 

 spiral spur, and a long lip. Filaments scarcely winged. Fruit deep 

 green, smooth or downy. Root extremely poisonous, similar in action 

 to that of A. Napellus. 



The following reputed species appear to be mere varieties of 

 A. Anthora; viz., A. Pallasii, grandiflorum, Jacquini, nemorosum, 

 Decandollii, anthoroideum, eulophum, and versicolor. 



Sect. II. LYCOCTONUM. 



Root fibrous. Leaves with incised wedge-shaped lobes. Flowers 

 pale yellow or white, seldom purple or variegated. Sepals de- 

 ciduous. Helmet long, conical, obtuse, with scarcely any point in 

 front. Ovaries 3. 



32. A. Lycoctonum Linn. sp. pi. 750. Jacq. austr. t. 380. 

 DC. prodr. i. 57. AKOVITOV XVKOKTMOV, Dioscorides. A. ly- 

 coctonum vulgare flore luteo, Clus. hist. ii. p. 94. f. 1, 

 Mountainous woods and grassy meadows of France, Germany, 

 Sweden, Lapland, Hungary and Italy. 



A most variable plant, out of which a multitude of spurious species 

 have been derived by Reichenbach ; many of the varieties are very 

 different from each other at first sight, but pass gradually into each 

 other through intermediate forms. Some are possibly hybrids. Stem 

 smooth or downy, from 2 to 4 feet high. Lobes of leaves more or less 

 wedge-shaped, sometimes simply trifid and scarcely incised; sometimes 

 very much cut ; and, in some cases, divided halfway down into narrow 

 diverging segments. Flowers in lax or dense, simple or branched 

 racemes, usually light yellow. Helmet gradually sloping upwards into 

 a cone, not abruptly hollowed out in front, sometimes with a length- 

 ened apex, sometimes with scarcely any, very variable in the degree 

 of downiness. Spurs of the petals usually spiral, but often merely 

 curved, and in some forms of the species very short and blunt. The 

 poisonous roots have been used to destroy wild beasts ; this is, how- 

 ever, reputed less venomous than many other species. 



Sect. III. CAMMARUM. 



Roots turnip-shaped, intermixed with fibres* Leaves with 

 rhomboidal or wedge-shaped incised lobes. Flowers blue or 

 white. Racemes lax, somewhat corymbose. Sepals deciduous 



10 



