24 RAXrXCULACE.E. Jia„u>,culus. 



Schlecht. Auiinad. Raiiunc. i. 23, t. 4, f. 1,^ the diminutive and chiefly high nortliern form, 

 var. ALpf.NLS, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 1 1. — Moist and brackish soil, arctic sea-coast and along 

 the coast to New Jersey, and at salt springs iu the interior, along the Kocky JMountaiu 

 region and westward to California. (Greenland, N. & Ceutr. Asia, Mex., S. Anier.) 



§ 0. EuRANUNCULUS. Petals yellow or iu few sjDecies white, with nectarifer- 

 ous spot or pit covered by a scale on tlie claw, deciduous : sepals 5, sometimes 

 3 or 4, deciduous : carpels in fruit coriaceous or crustaceous akenes, filled by the 

 seed or nearly so, usually more or less compressed, the sides nerveless. 



* Petals white (8 or 10) : sepals 3 or 4. 

 R. Pallasii, Schlecht. Creeping perennial, glabrous : stems and elongated petioles tliick 

 and fistulous : leaves with short blade from linear to oblong, obtuse and entire, or some 

 cuneate and 2-3-lobed : petals (juarter to half inch loug, obovate : akenes thiu-crustaceous, 

 2 lines loug or more, tipped with a small short beak. — Animad. Ranimc. i. 15, t. 2 ; Hook. Fl. 

 Eor.-Am. i. 10 ; Seem. Hot. Herald, 22. li. Pallassii, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 17. — In shallow 

 water, arctic Alaska, and Islands, Pallas, Chamisso, Seeinann, Murdoch, &c. Also Labrador, 

 Jidt Ascherson, but doubtful. (Arct. E. Asia, Laplaud.) 



* * Petals yellow, commonly 5 (3-1 G in certain species). 

 — i- Amphibious aquatics, with dissected leaves, when submersed capillary-mnltifid in the 

 manner of § Batnichium : perennial by fibrous-rooting from the nodes : akenes smooth. 



R. mioltifidus, Pursh. Polymorphous, fibrous-rooting : the well developed plant aquatic, 

 with submersed or floating elongated fistulous stems : leaves, inch or two long, all ternately 

 decompound into narrow filiform or capillary divisions, flaccid, or some small uppermost 

 emersed and 5-7-partetl into cuneate lobes : flowers showy : petals .5 to 8, broadly obovate, 

 deep golden yellow, 4 to G lines long : akenes obliquely ovate, rather turgid, when ripe sub- 

 erose-thickened at base and ventral edge, tipped with a straight and compressed subulate 

 beak of half their length. — Fl. ii. 73G; DC. Syst. i. 270; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 40, not Forsk., 

 which being quite obscure may rest as E. Forskxthlii, DC. R.fluiiatilis, Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 

 1, 139, not Willd. R. lacuslris, Beck & Tracy, N. Y. Med. & Phys. Journ. ii. 1 12, & Trans. 

 Alb. Inst. i. 148, t. 5.- R. Purshii, Hook. fI. Bor.-Am. i. 15, as to vars. o & i8, t. 7; B. 1 ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 19, as to vars. a & /3. R. Beckii, Don, Syst. i. 39. R. Purshii, var. 

 aquatilis, Ledeb. Fl Ross. i. 35. — In stagnant or slow-flowing water, Atlantic States from 

 • N. Carolina northward to N. Canada, Brit. Columbia, California, &c. (Siberia.) 



Var.* terrestris, Gray.-^ Under this may be collected tlie series of forms of shallow 

 water or wet soil, which creep, rooting iu the mud, with shorter stems, emersed coarsely 

 dissected leaves, round-reuiform and once to thrice parted or cleft into more or less cuneate 

 lobes : flowers and fruit often somewhat smaller ; also autumnal forms in exsiccated beds of 

 ponds, with ascending stems and broadish lobes to the leaves, these usually pube.scent. — 

 Man. ed. 5, 41, & Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 36G (where as in ms. of present work the following 

 species was included). 1/2. Missonriensis, Greene, Erythea, iii. 20. — With the typical 

 form, and not very common. To be distinguished from the following, which it closely 

 simulates in foliage, by its larger akenes with a tumid suberose border about the base and 

 tipped with a longer flatter style. 



R.* Purshii, Richards. Creeping upon muddy banks: leaves small, 4 to 9(to 12) lines ia 

 diameter, circular in outline, 3-5- or many-cleft into linear segments (filiform dissected 

 leaves very rarely present) : flowers small, seldom over 5 lines in diameter: heads of fruit 

 as well as the akenes themselves considerably smaller than in the preceding, the latter desti- 

 tute of any distinct turgid margin and tipped with a slender style. — Richards, in Frankl. 

 1st Journ. ed. 2, App. 751 (reprint, p. 23), var. a ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 15, as to vars. y & S, 

 t. 7, B. 2 & 3; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 19, as to vars. 7 & S. R Gnultni, DC. Syst. i. 303 (R. 



1 Add syn. Cyrtorhynclm Cymbalaria, Britton, Mem. Torr. Chib, v. 161. 



2 Greene, Pittonia, ii. 62; C. A. Davis, Bot. Gaz. xvi. 115. Add also syn. R.deljjhinifolius, Torr. 

 iu Eaton, Man. ed. 2, 395, not HBK. 



8 This variety has hceii liniiied l)v the editor to exclude the following species. 



