BUTTERCUP FAMILY. Ranunculaccae. 



BUTTERCUP FAMILY. Ranunculoceot. 



The members of this large and handsome family vary so 

 much in appearance that it is difficult for the amateur to 

 realize that they are nearly related. In fact they have no 

 very distinctive characteristics. They are all herbs, 

 except Clematis, which is shrubby, and all have bitter 

 juice, which is never milky or colored, numerous stamens 

 and usually several pistils, which are superior and one- 

 celled, bearing a single style, and all the parts of the flower 

 are separate from each other and inserted on the receptacle. 

 The flowers are often of eccentric forms, with spurs or 

 hoods; sometimes they dispense with petals altogether 

 and instead have colored sepals which resemble petals. 

 The leaves are of all sorts and shapes, usually more or less 

 lobed and cut, but have no stipules and often their bases 

 clasp the stem. The fruit is an akene, pod, or berry. 

 Many of our most beautiful and popular garden flowers 

 are included in this family, which is large anpl distributed 

 throughout the world, but not abundant in the tropics. 



There are numerous kinds of Ranunculus, mostly 

 perennials, with fibrous roots, growing in temperate and 

 cold regions. Ours have yellow or white flowers, with 

 three to five sepals and from three to fifteen petals, each 

 of the petals with a nectar-gland at its base; the numerous 

 pistils developing into a roundish or oblong head of akenes. 

 The leaves are variously cut and lobed, the stem leaves 

 alternate. Some sorts grow in the water and some have 

 creeping stems. Some kinds of Ranunculus are liable to 

 be confused with some sorts of Cinquefoils, but the calyx of a 

 Buttercup has no bractlets, as has that of a Cinquefoil. The 

 Latin name means " little frog," as these plants like marshes. 

 The commonest kind and attractive, 

 Common Western often coloring the fields for miles with 



Buttercup bright gold, but the flowers are not so 



Ranunculus 



Califdrnicus pretty as some common eastern kinds. 



Yellow The stems are branching and more or less 



Winter, spring hairy, nine inches to a foot and a half tall, 



Wash., Oreg., ^^ ^ark-green leaves, smooth, hairy or 



velvety, and velvety, hairy buds. The 



flowers are about an inch across, with from nine to sixteen, 



bright-yellow, shiny petals and pale-green sepals, turned 



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