MOUNTAIN FLOWERS 261 



• CREEPING CROWFOOT 



Ranunculus Cyjnbalaria. Crowfoot Family 



Stems : one-to-seven flowered. Leaves : broadly ovate, coarsely cre- 

 nate, clustered at the base and joints of the long, filiform, rooting runners. 

 Flowers : petals yellow, longer than the sepals. Fruit : the mature achenes 

 striate-veined on the sides, apex blunt with a short oblique beak, heads 

 oblong. 



As its name denotes, this is a small creeping plant, having 

 numerous runners which root at the joints, whence spring up 

 little clusters of leaves. The flowers are yellow and very tiny. 



R. aquatilis var. stagfiatilis^ or Water Crowfoot, has tiny 

 white and yellow flowers. The fine thread-like leaves are 

 entirely submerged under the surface of the alpine lakes and 

 pools, where the plant grows abundantly, while the broader 

 three-lobed leaves float upon the face of the waters. These 

 thread-like leaves are common to several kinds of aquatic 

 plants, and such minute division enables them without a large 

 expenditure of material to expose a large surface to the car- 

 bonic acid gas dissolved in the water. 



R. reptans, or Creeping Spearwort, has small yellow flowers 

 with from four to seven petals, trailing stems that root at the 

 joints, and extremely narrow grass-like leaves. The flowers 

 are borne in the axils of the prostrate creeping stems. 



R. repens^ or Yellow Crowfoot, is a hairy plant, which 

 spreads by means of its runners and forms large patches 

 upon the ground ; it has leaves which are divided into three 

 parts, each one of which is lobed and toothed. The flower- 

 stalk is grooved, the sepals are widely spread, and the petals 

 are half -erect. 



