EANUNCULACEyE. 67 



number of very difterent characters, and to group those genera that 

 we retain around a few well-marked centres which they approach 

 more or less closely. Hence certain genera happen to be on the 

 peripheral limits of two or more groups at once, and indicate by 

 what features these groups are bound together. Or, indeed, if we 

 draw up each of these groups in a line, with tlie typical species at 

 the head, we obtain a certain number of series which are parallel or 

 nearly so for some part of their course, but afterwards diverge 

 in various directions, and hence must intersect, their intersec- 

 tions indicating the characters common to the different sections.' 

 The prototypes that we have chosen provisionally- are Aquilcfjia, 

 Ranunculus, Clematis, and Paonia, from which we afterwards derive 

 the other genera by the modifications found in the number and 

 direction of the ovules, the number of pieces and whorls in the 

 perianth, the symmetry and aestivation of the flower, the position of 

 the leaves, &c. 



The Banunculacece are almost always herbs, far more rarely 

 annuals than perennials. In the latter case we have seen how they 

 are propagated in the different genera by buds, nourished while 

 developing by the accumulation of juices, either in their own bases, 

 or in those of the neighbouring organs,^ The herbaceous steins 

 usually possess a normal or nearly normal organization. The pith 

 of branches which grow fast sometimes contracts so as to render 

 them more or less fistular.^ In several of these same species the 

 fibro-vascular bundles, dispersed with little apparent order through 

 the cellular mass, have the same distribution as in the stems of 

 Monocotyledons, and the m-cdullary rays may lose their usual recti- 

 linear course so as to render doubtful their existence.* These fibro- 

 vascular bundles (often numerous in herbaceous stems that have 



' Thus we have shown (Adausonia, iv. 41), how the prffiHoration of the calyx ; aiul so purely i)ro- 



Ficaria, by its close analogy to Caltha, connects visional is the grouping we propose;, that we hnvc 



TroUius and Ranunculus ; how the Hellebores, already s'lid {Adansonia, iv. 55) that instead of 



closely allied to TroUius, lead back to the kcei)ing tlie Chmatis series distinct, we sliduld 



NigellcB which are Columbines with deduplicated perhaps do better in joining it to that of the 



nectaries. Traulvetieria is allied by its habit to Anemones. In fact we have seen (pp. 50, 51) that 



ActoBa and Thalictrum, by its flower to Bnnun- at a given moment the restivation of a CUmaiis 



cuius. Thalictrum, only separated i'rom Aclaa. may became that of ^4»e»io«c. 



by the lesser number of its ovules, is at the ^ See pp. 5, 31, 38. 



same time closely allied to the Anemones by •• In several aquatic species of Manuncuhis 



Syndesmon, and Xanlliorhiza, formerly left un- Delplnnium, Aconilum, Anemone, T/iaiu-lrutti 



separated from Jc/a'rt and Pffio«m is, says Paykb, (on these last, see Ue Ukrnkt, -Vy/o/o/z/VfAr' 



merely Aquilecjia with but few staniinal whorls. Studini, Bull. Soc. JiJoxr., 1S(!1, 123). 



2 From what we have stated before it will be * llAKTUi, Beitr.z. I'crgl. Ana/, der IloUiJi. 



seen that Clematis &m\ Anemone only differ in (JSo<. ^et^ (1859), U3, 1)6). 



f2 



