RANUNCULACEJE. (CROWFOOT FAMILY.) 7 



polygamous : sepals 4 5, falling away early : fruits sessile, tipped with long stig 

 mas, ribbed-angled. 



2. X. dioicum, L. (EARLY MEADOW -RuE.) Leaves all with general 

 petioles ; leaflets rounded and 5 - 7-lobed ; flowers in compound panicles, green- 

 ish. Rocky woods and hill-sides ; common northward. April, May. A foot 

 or so high, with very pale and delicate foliage, arid slender yellowish anthers on 

 capillary filaments. 



3, T. CorilWti, L. (MEADOW-RuE.) Stem-leaves without general peti- 

 oles ; leaflets 3-lobed at the apex, the lobes acutish ; flowers in very compound 

 large panicles, white. Meadows and along streams. June, July. Stem 

 3 - 4 high, furrowed. Leaves whitish or downy beneath. Filaments slightly 

 club-shaped ; anthers oblong. 



1. TRAUTVETTERIA, Fischer & Meyer. FALSE BUGBANE. 



Sepals 4 or 5, concave, petal-like, very caducous. Petals none. Achenia 

 numerous, in a head, membranaceous, compressed-4-angled and inflated. Seed 

 erect. A perennial herb, with palmately-lobed leaves, all alternate, and corym 

 bose (white) flowers. (Dedicated to Prof. Trautvetter, a Russian botanist.) 



1. T. palmata, Fischer & Meyer. (Cimicifuga palmata, Michx.) 

 Woods, along streams, Virginia and Kentucky along the mountains : also spar 

 ingly in Ohio and Illinois. July, Aug. Root-leaves large, 5-9-lobed; the 

 lobes toothed and cut. Stems 2 -3 high. 



8. RAWIJNCIJI/IJS, L. CROWFOOT. BUTTERCUP. 



Sepals 5. Petals 5, flat, with a little pit or scale at the base inside. Aehe- 

 nia numerous, in a head, mostly flattened, pointed; the seed erect. Annuals 

 or perennials : stem-leaves alternate. Flowers solitary or somewhat corymbed, 

 yelloAV, rarely white. (Sepals and petals rarely only 3, the latter often more 

 than 5. Stamens occasionally few in number.) (A Latin name for a little 

 frog ; also applied by Pliny to these plants, the aquatic species growing where 

 those animals abound.) 

 1. BATRACHIUM, DC. Petals with a pore or naked pit at the base, tvhite, 



the claw yellow: achenia turgid, transversely wrinkled: aquatic perennials, with 



the immersed foliage dissected into capillary lobes. 



1. R. aquatilis, L., var. divaricatiis. (WHITE WATER-CROW 

 FOOT.) Floating ; leaves all immersed and similar, compoundly dissected into 

 many capillary lobes, which are rather rigid, and all widely spreading in a hori- 

 zontal plane, making an orbicular outline ; petals obovate, much longer than 

 the calyx ; receptacle of fruit hispid. (R. divaricatus, Schrank. R. circinatus. 

 Sibthorp.) Ponds and slow streams : common. June- Aug. (Eu.) 



2. Petals with a little scale at the base (yellow in all our species). 



* Achenia smooth. 

 y* *- Aquatic, perennial : immersed leaves filiformly dissected. 



2. R. PiirslBii, Richards. (YELLOW WATUB -CROWFOOT.) Stem 

 floating, with the leaves all dissected into several times forked capillary tlivis 





