THE ORIGIN OF BUTTERCUPS. 99 



other hand, is the fact that it represents an early stage 

 in the history of these more highly- developed forms. 

 In order to understand them we must first understand 

 it. This buttercup, in short, is one of the most 

 central members of the family to which it belongs ; 

 while some of its congeners have diverged in one 

 direction and some in another, it has still kept- 

 unaltered for us the primitive lineaments of the 

 common ancestor from which all alike have ultimately 

 sprung. 



Buttercups, as everybody knows, are tall meadow 

 weeds, and the one which I hold in my hand belongs 

 to the tallest species of all, which we know par 

 excellence as the buttercup ; for we have in England 

 alone no less than some sixteen representatives of the 

 entire genus. Let us look a little closely into its 

 structure, and see what hints we can gather from its 

 existing shape as to its past history and evolution. 



First of all there are the leaves. These, one notices 

 at once, are raised on long stalks, and deeply divided 

 into several segments. Sometimes there are only three 

 divisions to each leaf, sometimes five^ and sometimes 

 seven ; the reason why they thus run in uneven 

 numbers being, of course, that there is always a single 

 terminal leaflet, together with one, two, or three lateral 

 leaflets on either side of it. Again, each of these 

 segments is itself further divided into three toothed 

 lobes. Now, such a complex leaf as this shows by its 

 very nature that it must be the product of considerable 

 previous development. All very early leaves are quite 



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