BANUNGULACE2E. 



37 



Casalea' is the name given to some American EanuncuU in wliicli 

 the number of pieces of the perianth may be reduced to three in 

 each whorl But this reduction is not constant,- and besides, all the 

 other characters are those of Ranimcdiis, so that we can hardly erect 

 Casalea into a separate section. 



Ranimcdm Ficaria L. (fig. 6S) has been equally considered as 

 the type of a distinct genus,' be- 

 cause its flowers are trimerous, and 

 its corolla is double, the pieces of 

 the inner whorl beins: altoo-ether 

 or in part deduplicated.' But these 

 characters, which may have for- 

 merly appeared sufficient to con- 

 stitute a genus,' are remarked, the 

 one in Casalea, and the other in the EanuncuU strictly so called 

 mentioned above, without our being able now-a-clays to give them 

 a generic value. 



We have stronger reasons for not separating Oxijgraphlf generi- 

 cally from the Banunculi, for if we observe the same multiplication 

 of organs in its corolla, yet the flower is still on a quinary ty|3e, and 

 we cannot attribute much importance to the usual persistence of one 

 part of the perianth. 



Ranunculus Ficaria. 



Fig. 68. 



Longitudinal section of flower. 



1 Casalea A. S. H., Flor. Bras. Mer., i. 6, 1. 1. 

 — Endl., Oen., n. 4782. 



2 Messrs. Triana & Planchon {Ann. So. 

 Nat., ser. 4, xvii. 12, note) alread;y recognised 

 the variability of this character. 



3 Ficaria Dill., Nov. Gen., 108, t. 5.— DC. 

 Prodr., i. 44. — Spach, Suit, a Buff., vii. 196.— 

 Endl., Oen., n. 4785. — F. ranuncul aides 

 McENCH, Meth., 2\5.—Banuncuhis Ficaria L., 

 Spec, 774.— Cios, Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, xvii. 

 129. The whole of this work, which is of quite 

 a special character, should be read. 



^ M. Clos (I. cit., 138) counts from five to 

 eleven. Usually there are three petals in the 

 outer corolla, and the inner petals are in three 

 alternating groups, one of three, one of two, and 

 the third of a single piece. (See Payer, Orga- 

 nog., 254.— H. Bn., Adansonia, ii. 202.) 



^ Dillen established the genus especially on 

 account of the trimerous character of the co- 

 rolla. Adanson preserved it, says M. Clos 

 (I. ci<., 140) under the name ofScotanum (CjT.sMjV. 

 ex Adans., Fam. 459), borrowed from Urun- 

 FELS. Payer and ourselves maintained it 

 (I. cit., 210) on account of its trimerous type, 

 the deduplication of the corolla, and the position 



of tlie sepals with regard to the axis. The facts 

 we have since observed in Casalea, the Pa'onies, 

 &f'., have necessarily niodified our original view. 

 ^ Oxygrai)his Bunoe, Fl. Altaic, suppl., IG. 

 — ENDL.,Ge»., n. 4785', suppl.,i. 1119. — H00K.& 

 Tn., Fl. Ltd., i. 27.— Wali'., Ann., iv. 31.— 15. 

 H., Gen., 6, n. 12. In the flowers of O. 

 glacialis Bge. {Ficaria glacialis FiscH.), there 

 are five sepals in a quincunx and often ten petals 

 forming a corolla of two alternating wliorl-;, and 

 bearing a thickening in which is a glandular 

 depression at their base. Tlie stamens are in- 

 definite with extrorse anthers ; the carpels each 

 enclose a single ascending ovule with the micro- 

 pyle external. In O. jwli/pctala Hook. A: Tii. 

 {Ranunculitspolypetalus Boyle, ///., t. xi. fig. 2. 

 — CallianthemttmFndlicheri Walp.) the (lowers 

 are similar, but have from fifteen to twenty petals, 

 each of the inner ones being rejilaccd by a gnni]) 

 of two, three, or four. Hence we may consider 

 the Oxygraphids as Ficaria:, whose flowoi's nro 

 formed on a quinary typo ; and just as we caimot 

 separate the two above-mentiDued species of 

 0.rggrai>/i!x generically from one another, so we 

 cannot remove them from the Riiiiiiiiciili. (See 

 Clos, Ann. Sc Nat., ser. 3, xiii. 14] .) 



