84 



THE CROWFOOT FAMILY. 



^ This fragile, little plant belongs to the 



group of Ranunculus which we find grow- 

 ing in muddy banks and swamps. It is not 

 very pretty, and when surrounded by high 

 grasses becoiiies quite lost to view unless 

 occasional glimpses are caught of its yellow 

 flowers. Nearly all the members of this 

 genus are neat lookmg plants and although 

 others than botanists seldom pay much heed 

 to their specific characteristics, they are 

 rather well known through their kinship 

 with the common buttercup. 

 '. obiitsh'tscidus, water plantain spearwort, which in an 

 ^ht, or ascending way grows also in ditches, and 

 iddy, wet places, is a more attractive plant than the 

 low spearwort. Its small yellow flowers, very similar to 

 those of the common buttercup are sometimes over- 

 shadowed by the lanceolate leaves, which along their 

 edges are entire, or inclined to be remotely serrate. The 

 petioles, as they clasp the hollow stem at the nodes, become sheath-like. 

 This species is of perennial duration, 



R. obloiigifbliiis, oblong-leaved spearwort, a slender, and weak looking 

 annual, occurs through very wet or marshy places. Its golden yellow 

 flowers with numerous stamens are small, and its oblong, or ovate leaves, 

 are usually shorter than their petioles, and entire or inclined to be dentate 

 along the margins. The upper ones often are lanceolate. 



R. scelerdtiis, celery-leaved crowfoot, comes before us as a leafy, glabrous 

 plant, very different in appearance from any of the preceding ones by reason 

 of its lobed or divided leaves. • It also is an inhabitant of ditches and 

 muddy banks. Its stem is very stout and hollow and contains a juice acrid 

 enough to cause blisters. The large basal leaves at the ends of their long 

 petioles are broadly cordate and palmately divided into from three to five 

 lobes which are again toothed and cleft. The upper leaves are short-peti- 

 oled or sessile and also divided. While the yellow flowers are very small 

 they grow in great numbers ; their petals being about as long as their sepals. 



Rnmmcuhis 

 pusilliis. 



MOUNTAIN CROWFOOT. 



Rlhi ini cuius A llcirh a n /en sis. 



to Massachusetts. 



Flowers: small; growing on long pedicels. Calyx: with five sepals. Corolla: 



