20 RANUNCULACE^. Mnosurue.. 



into a prominent erect or slightly spreading subulate beak : seed oval. — Proc. Am. Awid. 

 xvii. 3Gi; Greene, 1. c. 278. — Alkaline Hats iu Umatilla Co, N. E. Oregon, Howell.^ 

 * * Mature carpels with back developed into a wliitish cellular- or suberose-cartilaginous 

 border around the salient and laterally compressed-beaked keel. 



M. alopecuroides, Greene. Scapes short and tliickish, bearing a f'^ekish fruiting 

 .<j)ike: niatuic larji.ls somewhat ijuadrate, with cellular-scarious body, and oblong thickened 

 cellular-bordered somewhat concave l)ack, tlie short keel projecting into a prominent and 

 spreading subulate beak : seed oblong-oval. — Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. i. 278. -^ California, 

 near Antioch, Mrs. Cnnan.'^ Spur or appendage of sepals (as in other species) of variable 

 length, not rarely short or almost obsolete. 



M. cupulatus, Watson. Scapes elongated and slender, bearing a mostly elongated and 

 slender fruiting spike : mature carpels roundish, slightly compressed within, the almost 

 cartilaginous much-thickened portion ])rojccting into a shallow dor.sal cup around the base 

 of the laterally much flattened triangular-subulate or gladiate erect or slightly spreading 

 green beak ; the proper cell small and narrow, filled with the ov.al seed. — Proc. Am. Acad, 

 xvii. 362 ; Greene, 1. c. — Hills and mountains of Arizona and adjacent New Mexico, Greene, 

 Lemmon, Pringle. 



9. RANtJNCULUS, Tourn. Crowfoot, Buttercup. (Latin name of 

 a tadpole, applied by Pliny to aquatic species of this genus.) — A large ami 

 much diversified cosmopolitan genus of perennial or annual herbs, of various 

 habit. — Inst. 285, t. 149; L. Gen. no. 464; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 15, incl. 

 Cyrtorhyncha, Nutt. ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 5, incl. Oxygraphis, Bunge ; Gray, 

 Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 363-378. 



R. FicAri.v, L. (representing the section FicAria, which has roots tuberous-thickened down- 

 ward, Cu///ia-like leaves, and scapiform peduncle bearing a 3-sepalous and about 9-petalous 

 flower) has been collected at Flushing, Long Island, and on the Wissahickon near Phila- 

 delphia 8 escapes from cultivation. There is no telling what Walter's R. Ficaria may be, 

 perhaps Caltha. 



R. HornemAnni, Schlecht. Animad. Ranuue. ii. 36 ; DC. Prodr. i. 44 (/?. tiiberosiis, Ilornem. 

 Ilort. Hafn. ii. 527) is purely R. bulbosus,Jide Lange. 



R. DEBii.is, Raf. in Desv. Joum. Bot. i. 225 (1808), coll. near Germantown, Penn., is not 

 to be made out. 



R. OBTUsiT5scuLrs, Raf. 1. c. is equally indeterminable, even with the help of a tracing from 

 an original sketch, possessed by the N. Y. Academy of Science.s, which is probably not true 

 to nature, representing cauline foliage of R. pusillus, from an annual root, 5-merous poly- 

 androus flowers witii persistent linear-lanceolate sepals and a long style. 



§ 1. BatrAchium, DC. Petals white with yellow base and a naked (not 

 scale-covered) nectariferous pit : akenes of JEuranuncuIus but transversely rugose, 

 marginless : stamens often few : aquatic or occasionally subaquatic, either peren- 

 nial by rooting from the nodes or winter-annuals, with submersed leaves filiform- 

 dissected and either with or without emersed dilated leaves ; the stipular-dilated 

 base of petiole membranous : peduncles solitary, opposite the leaves. — Syst. i. 

 233. Batrachium, S. F. Gray, Brit. PI. ii. 720; Wimmer, Fl. Schles. ^, fide 

 Fries, Bot. Not. 1842, no. 8, & Novit. Mant. iii. 51. Ranunculus kydrocharis, 

 Spenner, Fl. Frib. 1007; Hiern in Seem. .Tourn. Bot. ix. 44. Between this 



1 Also San Joaquin Val., Calif., Greene, ace. to Hutli, who places in this species also Prof. Greene's 

 M. minimus, var. apus (Bull. Cal. Acad. Sci. i. 277). 



2 Also near V.icaville, Calif., Grerne. 



^ Also at Hingham, Mass , Cun/ihi;/, and Willow Brook, Richmond Co., N. Y. ace. to Hollick & 

 Britton, Bull. Torr. CluV), xviii. 21-3. 



