38 



NATirRAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Nearly all the Ttaiiuncidl have hermaphrodite flowers. They are 

 nevertheless accidentally polygamous in some ; and dioecia is nearly 

 constant in some American species native in the regions near the 

 Antarctic Pole, which have been designated Hamadri/as / we only 

 admit them as a section. - 



The BdiiKiiciiH are a numerous family ; some have described three 

 hundred species; their number may probably be reduced by one- 



Ranuncuhis repens. 



Fig. 69. 



Stem. 



half. We find them all over the world from one pole to the other — 

 common in the temperate^ and cold^ regions of both hemispheres, 

 much rarer in the warm countries.^ Many are annuals, and sometimes 

 are of very short duration." Some are aquatic plants with the leaves 

 submerged, at least in great part. The perennials only survive by 

 developing in some of their organs (always near the young shoots) 

 reservoirs of nutritive juice, of varying situation, but possessing 

 always the same function — that of nourishing the young plants, 

 whether they remain in connexion with the parent stock or become 



1 Hamadryas Co^nr., herb., ex Jrss., Gen., 

 232.— DC, rrodr., i. 25.— SPAcn, Suit a Buff., 

 vii. — ExDL., Gen.,w. 1770. — Walp., Ann., i. 7. 

 —Hook. F., Fl. Ant., ii. 227, t. 85— H. Bn., 

 Adansonia, iv. 51. 



' In the female flowers of R. mageUanlca, 

 the carpels are indefiuite, each surmounted by a 

 email hooked style, and containing an ascending 

 ovule with the microjiylc external. In the male 

 flowers are numerous unequal stamens, with 

 basitixed anthers dehiscing by lateral clefts. 

 Tile calyx consists of five sepals, entire, or deeply 

 «livided into two or more lobes. The petals are 

 numerous, as in Oxygraphis, but are long and 

 narrow with a contracted daw, at the summit of 

 which is a glandular pit. The habit of this 

 plant is that of certain Ranunculi, especially 

 R. Tlinpsia. We cannot separate these plants 

 from tiie Ranunctili on account of their dicli- 



nism, for that is observed in Clematis, Tlia- 

 lictrtim, Actfea, &c. ; nor for their numerous 

 petals, which may be as many in the Ranunculi 

 strictly so called. 



3 Gken. & GoDn., Fl. Fr., i. 18.— Keichb., 

 Icon., iii. 1-23.— Walp., Rep., i. 33 ; ii. 738 ; 

 V. 4; Ann., i. 8, 954; ii. G ; iv. 6.— FisCH., 

 Anim. Rot. {Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, iv. 332, 

 335). — Stev., Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, xii. 368. 

 — S. k Zucc, F!. Jap. Fam., 71.— A. Grat, 

 III, t. 9.— Wedu., CMor. And., ii. 300.— Tei. 

 & Pi., Fl. N.-Granat. {Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 4, 

 xvii. n.) 



* Hook., Fl. Antarct., i. 3, t. 1, 2; ii. 223, 

 t. 81-83. 



5 Hook. & Th., Fl. Ind., i. 28.— A. S. H., Fl. 

 Rras. Mer., i. 6.— MART.,jP?.5w*.,Renonc., 154. 



^ Especially Ceralocephalus (p, 36). 



