Ranunculus. KANUNCULACE.E. 38 



R. sceleratus, L- Aunual or mostly so, somewhat succulent, glabrous : radical and lower 

 caiiliiie leaves 3-5-lobed or parted and the lobes crenately incised or cleft (or when sub- 

 mersed reduced to flaccid and filiform divisions) ; upper with narrower, (livisions: jxita-ls a 

 line or two long, usually surpassinj;; tiic calyx : akenes glabrous, barely apiculate, in a 

 globular to ohlung head with a tliick receptacle. — Spec. i. 551 ; Fl. Dan. t. 571 ; Curt. I-'l. 

 Loud. ii. t. 42; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 19, with var. multiJiJus, Nutt., a mere form. — In shallow 

 pools, &c., New Brunswick ami Canada, north to lat. 67°, west to Brit. Columbia, and south 

 to Arizona, iu the Atlantic States appearing as if introduced. (Eu., Asia.) 

 = ^ = = ^ Leaves variously cleft or divided : akenes compressed, often flat, sur- 

 rounded by a more or less conspicuous firm or indurated margin : none truly alpine or 

 arctic. 

 n. Perennials, with globular or ovoid carpel-heads (except Ii. Pennsijlvanicus) and 8mo<jth or 



sometimes barely pubescent akenes, mostly fibrous-rooted. 

 1. Ilook-styled ; with long-styles recurving (at least in age) and wholly persi.stcnt in a rigid 

 and uncinate elongated beak: petals only 5 : stems erect, and radical leaves hardly ever 

 divided into separate leaflets. — R. Oncostyli, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 373, exd. 

 spec. 1 . 

 R. recurvatus, Poir. Soft-hirsute or pubescent, a foot or two high, somewhat equally 

 leaved up to the short peduncles: leaves rather large (2 to 4 inches in diameter) and mostly 

 round-cordate iu outline, 3-5-cleft to beyond the middle or uppermost 3-5-j)arted, but none 

 divided ; lobes rhombic-obovate, incised and dentate : petabi ligiit yellow, oblong, 2 lines 

 long, reflexed with and shorter or hardly longer than the calyx : style nmch recurved, 

 forming a rather slender beak wiiich is not much shorter than the glabrous akeue: recep- 

 tacle bristly-pilose. — Diet. vi. 125; Pursh, Fl; ii. 394; Dcless. Ic. Sel. i. t. 41; Torr. & 

 Gray, Fl. i. 22 (excl. vars.), 658; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 42. A'. /f/Hi/^/no.suA, Walt. Car. 1.59, 

 not L. R. sanicuUeformis, Muhl. Cat. 54. A', tomentosus, Spreiig. Neue Entd. i. 287, not 

 I'oir. — Damp woods. Nova Scotia (not "Labrador," specimen so named by DC. in herb. 

 Banks being a Geum) to Florida, Ohio, and northwestward to the Lake of the Woods. 



R.* tenellus, Nutt.^ A foot or more high, erect, very slender to stoutish, sparingly pulxjs- 

 cent to somewhat hirsute : leaves thin, deeply 3-5-cleft ; the segments oblanreolate to 

 obovate-cuneate, sharply and irregularly few-toothed : ])etals small, not excelling a line or 

 two iu length: receptacle glabrous; akenes 12 to 30. glabrous or nearly so, in a globo-e 

 head, and tijipcd with sleiitler circinnate-revolute beaks. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 2.J ; 

 Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exp. 214. A', recurvatus, Bong. Veg. Sitch. 123, in part, not Poir. A'- 

 Nelsonii, var. tendlus, Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 374. R. occidentalls, vars. tenellus & 

 Riseni (i:i part), Gray, 1. c. xxi. 373. R. Bonr/ardi, Greene, Erythea, iii. 54, so far a.s small- 

 flowered plant of Bongard and var. tenellus are concerned, but excl. syn. 11. uccideutalis, var. 

 L;/alli. — Alaska near the coast, southward to Idaho and S. California, Parish; common. 



Var.* Lyalli, Komxsox, n. var. Similar iu habit aud foliage but commonly more 

 ]mbescent or hirsute aud with broader leaf-segments : akenes more or less hispid u])on the 

 faces. — ? R. occidentalls, var. parvijlorus, Torr. 1. c. R. occideutnlis, var. Lt/nlli, Gray, 1. c. — 

 Common in damp woodlaml, Pend Oreille Kiver, Lyall, and in the C:v<cade Mountains from 

 N. California, Blankinshi ji , to Brit. Columbia, Macoun, aud northward to Wrangel, Alask:i, 

 ace. to Miss Cooley. 



R.* occidentalls, Nitt. Villous-'^ursute, with the hairs on the stem.<5 widely spreading, a 

 .span to a foot or more high : radiral and lower cauline leaves of round-iordate outline, 

 deeply 3-.5-cleft or almost parted into cuneate-obovate mostly 2-3-cleft and ag-ain inci.-^etl 

 segments and lobes, these commonly acute, occasion.illy ime or two 3-foliolate and all the 

 leaflets petiolulate ; upper smaller and with siin])ler narrower commonly lanceolate seg- 

 ments r petals spreading, various, conspicuous and twice the length of the roflexe«l calyx : 

 styles forming a .stout and flattened subulate hooked beak which equals or is rather shorU>r 

 than the glabrous or sparingly bristly hairy akene : carpel-receptacle quite glabrous. — Nutt. 



1 From the more copious material now at hand it lia.s seemed necessary to modify considerably 

 Dr. Gray's manuscript treatment of this and the following siiccies. His views rugardiug them, how- 

 ever, have already been published (Proc. Am. Acad. xxi. 372-374). 



3 



