54 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



A small genus, chiefly confined to Southern Europe and Western 

 Asia. 



Adonis vernalis L. 



Stem about a foot high, almost glabrous ; lower leaves reduced 

 to scales, the others herbaceous, multifid, with linear segments. 

 Flowers pale yellow, large, petals 10-15, lanceolate or oblong. 

 Carpels oval, rounded, pubescent, with short recurved beak. Sepals 

 pubescent. 



Dry pastures, stony or wooded. April, May. 



Distribution. In several places in the Valais ; Cevennes, Alsace, 

 Spain, Central and South-Eastern Europe. 



Both the late A. W. Bennett, in his Flora of the Alps, and F. E. 

 Hulme, in Familiar Swiss Flowers, were in error in stating that 

 this is a weed in cultivated ground in Switzerland. If on cultivated 

 land it has been planted for sale in the market. 



Adonis pyrenaica DC. 



Stem about a foot high, slightly hairy ; leaves all herbaceous, 

 the lower ones large and longly petioled, 3-4 pinnate with linear 

 segments. Flowers bright yellow ; petals 10-15 oboval. Carpels 

 angular, pubescent, with long, tapering, recurved beak. 



Rock and cliffs ; rare, 5000 to 6500 feet in the Eastern Pyrenees. 

 June, July. 



Distribution. French and Spanish Pyrenees ; and in one or 

 two places in the Maritime Alps. 



Adonis autumnalis L., with deep red petals, often with a black 

 spot, and A. czstivalis L., with red and sometimes yellow flowers 

 and glabrous sepals are annuals sometimes found among crops 

 and in waste places in the mountains ; but they cannot be con- 

 sidered sub-alpine. We have specimens of A. cestivalis from Mont 

 Cenis, at about 6300 feet above the sea. 



RANUNCULUS L. Buttercup. 



Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes entirely aquatic. Leaves 

 entire or more or less divided. Flowers usually yellow or white. 

 Sepals 5, very rarely 3. Petals 5 or more, each with a thickened 

 hollow spot at the base, often covered by a minute scale. Stamens 

 numerous. Carpels numerous, without awns, in a globular or 

 oblong head, each with a single ovule attached near its base. A 

 large genus, spread widely over the temperate regions of the globe, 

 and even found in the tropics. 



Ranunculus aconitifolius L. (Plate VI.) 



Rootstock short, premorse, tufted with thick fibres. Stem erect, 

 1-3 feet, leafy, branched above, 3-many-flowered, flexuous, glabrous 

 like the leaves or with a few scattered hairs. Root-leaves and lower 



