LESSON 30.] HOW TO STUDY PLANTS. 185 



description goes. It also agrees with the subsection " # * * Petals 

 generally broad and conspicuous: akenes numerous in a head," and 

 restricts our choice in this case to the fifth genus, RANUNCULUS. 



The arrangement of the species of Ranunculus is to be found, 

 under the proper number, 5, on page 6 and the following. The 

 first section contains aquatic species ; ours is terrestrial, and in all 

 other particulars answers to 2. 



Three subsections, indicated by asterisks, depend upon leaf char- 

 acters, and as our plant evidently has not all the leaves undivided, 

 nor even undivided radical leaves, the third subsection is selected, 

 " * * * Some or all 'the leaves cleft or divided." 



The three choices which follow, indicated by daggers, lead us to 

 the third (p. 8), "-- - Leaves all temately divided." Under 

 this we find five species, by the reading of whose characters we 

 decide that the plant is, for example, No. 18, R. repens, L. 



It might have been some other species of the genus, but having 

 ascertained the genus from any one species, the student would 

 not fail to recognize it again in any other, at a glance. 



532. The L. at the end of the name is the recognized abbrevia- 

 tion of the name of Linnaeus, the botanist who gave it. Then 

 comes the specific character, and after this, the region where the 

 plant grows. There may also be included after the specific char- 

 acter a reference to the place of its first publication, and perhaps 

 another name it has formerly borne, called its synonym. 



533. One of the largest and most showy orders of Polypetalse is 

 that to which the Clovers, Lupines, Vetches, etc. belong, and as a 

 second illustration in this group of plants, and also to show the 

 relation which native and introduced species hold to each other in 

 this Manual, we will take the ordinary Red Clover, which follows 

 man wherever he goes, along with its humbler relative, the White 

 Clover. 



534. Taking a plant of the Red Clover, with well-developed 

 heads of flowers, we proceed to the examination. Turning to our 

 Analytical Key (p. ix.), we readily determine that our plant is 

 a Phasnogam, an Angiosperm, and a Dicotyledon. But now the 

 question is asked whether it is Polypetalous, Gamopetalous, or 

 Apetalous. Plainly it is not the last, as sepals and petals are both 

 present. A careful examination of the flower shows some such 

 structure as is shown in Figs. 217 and 218, page 105, in which 

 the two upper petals are blended together to form the standard 



