4 THE RANUNCULUS FAMILY. [Thalictrwn. 



three or four times divided, with very numerous small leaflets roundish 

 or broadly wedge-shaped, trifid and toothed, flowers usually of a pale 

 greenish-yellow, with a pink tinge on the sepals. Stamens numerous, 

 with long narrow anthers. Carpels from 3 to 5 or 6, very acute and 

 strongly furrowed. 



In dry situations, chiefly in limestone countries, throughout Europe 

 and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Scattered over Britain 

 and Ireland, but not common. PL summer. Several varieties have 

 been described as species, and three or four of these are British, but 

 their characters are vague and uncertain. 



[The two most marked forms are minus proper, which is 6 to 18 in. 

 high, often glaucous and glandular, with the stem naked below ; and 

 T. majus, Sm., with a stem 2 to 4 feet high, more leafy below, and 

 larger leaflets. The latter is most common in the north.] 



3. T. flavum, Linn. (fig. 4). Yellow T., Meadow Jlue.lbe largest 

 British species, being generally 2 to 3 feet high, and deeper green than 

 the last. Stem stout, furrowed. Leaves large, petiole twice or thrice 

 divided, the leaflets much fewer than in T: minus, but larger, often an 

 inch long, obovate or wedge-shaped at the base. Panicle compact, 

 rather corymbose. Pedicels short and erect even before the flower 

 expands. Flowers, especially the stamens, decidedly yellow. 



In moist meadows, and along ditches, in Europe and North Asia, 

 scarcely extending so far north as T. minus. Found in England, Ireland, 

 and southern Scotland, but not very common. Fl. summer. Here, again, 

 some botanists distinguish several species by size, colour, and pubescence, 

 and according as the rootstock is more or less creeping, or whether sessile 

 leaflets resembling stipules are or not formed at the base of the branches 

 of the petiole. 



III. ANEMONE. ANEMONE. 



Rootstock perennial. Leaves radical. Flower-stem naked, excepting 

 an involucre of three leaves usually at a considerable distance from the 

 flowers. Sepals 6 or more, frequently 6, coloured and petal-like, longer 

 than the stamens. No petals. Stamens numerous. Carpels numerous, 

 1-seeded, pointed or ending in a long feathery awn. 



A large genus, found in almost all temperate regions of the globe, 

 chiefly characterised by the 3 leaves placed in a whorl, from half- 

 way up the flowering stem to very near the flowers. When much 

 divided, these leaves may appear more numerous, but they always form 

 a single whorl, and are always united at the base into three. 



Flowers purple, silky outside. Carpels ending in feathery awns 1. A. Pulsatilla, 

 Flowers white or pink, glabrous. Carpels ending in a point . 2. A. nemorosa* 



Several Continental species are cultivated in our gardens, especially 

 A. pratcnsis, and the ffepatica (A. J/epatica), in which the involucre is so 

 close to the flower as to resemble a calyx. Two South European species, 

 the blue-flowered A. apcnnina and the yellow-flowered A. ranunculoides, 

 both with the habit and carpels of A. nemorosa, have been established in 

 plantations, and are hence included in some British Floras. 



1. A. Pulsatilla, Linn. (fig. 5). Pasque-flower. Rootstock thick 

 and woody. Radical leaves on long stalks, covered when young with 

 silky hairs, and two or three times divided into long linear segments. 



