334 AMKRICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



Species of the Atlantic slope, east of the Alleghenies, v^ery 

 distinct in character, yet known to me in only two sheets of 

 specimens, both in U. S. Herb., the best one being from rocky 

 woods at Guttenberg, New Jersey, 12 May, 1895, by .William 

 Van Sickle; the other from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, 11 

 May, 1889, by F. V. Coville. 



Ranunculus Holmii, nov. spec. 



Planta 3 dm. alta ct ultra; petioli una cum caule pilis longis 

 tenui^f-imis vel saepissime deflexis vestiti. Folia radicalia pler- 

 umque trifoliolata, foliola petiolulata, cuneato-obovata, supra 

 medium trilobata, caulina subses?ilia, 3-5-divisa, segmentis per- 

 angustis, apicem versus saenissime 3-lobis ceterum integerrimis. 

 Flores mirirri, sepalis ovalibus, concavis, extus valde pilosis; 

 filamentis brc\ ibus, liguliformibus. Carpella fere orbicularia, vix 

 subcompressa, in acum,en brevem, tenuem et arete recurvem 

 desinentia, et in capitulum. ovale obtusum conferta. 



A common plant of low woodland borders and open thickets, 

 in rich alluvial soil along the Potomac River and its tribularies 

 in Maryland and Virginia, where it flowers and fruits in April 

 and early May, its season being entirely in advance of that of 

 R. abortivus with which it has been confused, and which occurs 

 in these regions only under widely dissimilar environment. 



It has usually been listed as R. abortivus var. micranthus: 

 but this quite as erroneously; for that plant is of Missouri and 

 Arkansas, according to Nuttall its author; and the comparatively 

 diminutive plant of this affinity which comes into our herbaria 

 from those distant parts, and which answer to Nutall's description, 

 as far as his meager and inadequate account of it goes, has re- 

 markably elongated heads of achenes. They are too long to be 

 called oval, and may be called subcylindric. If this be Nuttall's 

 plant, this character, now first named, is a better one by far than 

 any indicated by Nuttall. As to its fruit, and even as to size, 

 R. Holmii is clearly distinct. 



Ranunculus ruderalis, nov. spec. 



Perennis, radicibus longis, fil>rosis, attamen sursum breviter 

 et leviter incrassatis. Caulis 5 cm. altus, validulus, usque ad 

 medium simplex, inde ramosus. Herba tota glaberrima, laete 



