127 

 OBSERVATIONS ON RANUNCULUS FICARIA. 



MARY A. JOHNSTONE, B.Sc, F.L.S. 



[Continued from page 105). 



(b) This was in the same narrow valley as [a), but on the 

 •opposite bank of the stream. The canopy of small birch trees 

 was broken by many gaps ; the ground was lightly shaded in 

 summer and perfectly open in winter and spring ; the aspect 

 was South. The dominant amongst the ground vegetation 

 was R. Ficaria, which formed an almost uniform carpet. I 

 examined an area of several hundred yards and was struck by 

 the seemingly erratic variations in distribution. Some of the 

 patches — several yards in extent- — presented the appearance of 

 close green mats of leaves, with just here and there as in (a) 

 solitary, tall, flowering exceptions. The modest leaf display 

 was the covering for an interesting underworld. Spreading 

 slightly outwards, the upper leaves touched and overtouched 

 one another till they constituted a green roof for quiet little 

 houses beneath them. Their still, dark, sheltered chambers 

 had tempted out from the leaf-bases crowds of little tubers. 

 The moist, equable air conditions suited them admirably, and 

 a delicately pretty appearance was given by the fine clothing 

 of root-hairs, softening the clean white surface. 



Quite close alongside these green stretches, were others 

 shining as sheets of blossom. Scarcely a tuber was to be found 

 there. I could find no difference in age, soil, drainage, lighting, 

 protection or other factor which could account for the abrupt 

 changes which succeeded each other all over that piece of 

 ground. 



(c) The ground was drier in the area here described. Cel- 

 andines had colonized parts here and there alongside a pathway 

 through a plantation of young spruce and larch. No obvious 

 law decided the prevalence of one or other of the types of Celan- 

 dine. In one spot, exposed to full sunshine, the plants were 

 small, had numerous aerial tubers and showed flowers at the 

 rate of about a dozen to five square yards. Elsewhere, they 

 grew through a layer of pine needles ; light was medium, 

 shelter was good ; growth was vigorous, flowers were not 

 many and tubers were absent. Again, on a rather more open 

 space, tall, well-branched plants were growing amongst moss. 

 Some of these produced aerial tubers and about an equal 

 number produced flowers. 



(d) This location lay along the side of a moorland road 

 bordered by a few feet of grass edge, a shallow ditch, and the 

 remains of a hawthorn hedge. The cutting of the hedge 

 looked as if it might have been done witnin the last few years ; 

 the hedge had probably been so tall as that still left on the 



1917 April!. 



