THE ACONITE-LEAVED BUTTERCUP 209 



are too big to allow them to creep between the 

 sepals. 



The photograph shown in the Frontispiece is 

 fortunate in that it exhibits examples of both the 

 bidden and unbidden guests of this flower. On the 

 top of the highest flower seen in the photograph, one 

 of the small flies, a legitimate guest, is just visible 

 (though not very distinctly) returning to the world. 

 On the left side of the same flower, a much larger 

 insect, a robber, probably a beetle, is at work. Unable 

 to get within by legitimate means, it tries to bite 

 through, and to tear off the sepals. Several of these 

 flowers show sepals, the margins of which have been 

 bitten away, and which consequently have turned 

 slightly brown at the edges. 



THE ACONITE-LEAVED BUTTERCUP. 



A conspicuous plant in the Alps, growing under 

 much the same conditions as the Globe-flower and 

 belonging to the same family, is the white Aconite- 

 leaved Buttercup (Ranunculus aconitifolius, Linn.) 

 (Frontispiece and Plate XL.). With our neigh- 

 bours, the double-flowered variety of this plant is 

 known as the "Fair Maid of France." 



In Britain we have a group of white-flowered 

 Buttercups of aquatic habit known as the Water 

 Ranunculi, which flourish in ponds, wet ditches, and 

 gently flowing streams. These plants are specially 

 adapted to their habitat, the submerged leaves 

 being highly divided and quite different in form from 



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