RANUNCULACE. 45 
SPECIES XVIL—RANUNCULUS PARVIFLORUS. Linn. 
Prate XXXVII.* 
Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ. et Helv. Vol. III. an. Tab. XXT. Fig. 4616. 
No rootstock. Stems numerous, at first ascending, afterwards 
procumbent, little branched, dichotomous. Leaves stalked, reniform, 
orbicular, or pentagonal in outline, 3-cleft, with crenate-serrate 
segments; the radical leaves often only crenate-serrate ; the upper 
stem leaves frequently with 5 acute lobes. Peduncles opposite the 
leaves or in the forks of the branches, hairy, furrowed. Sepals 
hairy, reflexed. Petals elliptical, scarcely exceeding the calyx, with 
an inconspicuous scale over the nectary. Head of fruit spheroidal, 
depressed. Achenes compressed, margined, covered with raised 
tubercles surmounted by little hooks, the former visible to the 
naked eye; beak nearly half as long as the rest of the carpel, 
with a triangular profile hooked at the point. Receptacle glabrous. 
In hedge banks, cornfields, and waste places; preferring a dry 
gravelly or sandy soil. Rather sparingly, but generally distributed 
in England. 
England, Ireland. Annual. Early Summer. 
Root fibrous, throwing up numerous stems 6 to 18 inches long. 
Leaves generally cordate at the base, variable in their degree of 
incision, but rarely divided more than half-way down, excepting 
those which are near the extremity of the stem, which have narrow 
segments. Flowers + inch in diameter, pale yellow. Achenes 
reddish brown when ripe, lenticular, bulging on the lower side; 
the tubercles more conspicuous than in R. hirsutus, and not con- 
fined to the vicinity of the margin, but spread over the whole 
surface of the carpel; beak smooth, greenish. Whole plant dull 
yellowish green, covered with soft, scattered hairs. Carpels fewer 
in number than in R. hirsutus, but more numerous than in the 
following. Petals sometimes partially abortive. 
Small-flowered Crowfoot. 
Old Gerarde, the herbalist, who found a use for everything, tells us “ that many do 
use to tie a little of the herb, stamped with salt, unto any of the fingers against the 
pain of the toothache ;” and he accounts for the cure very satisfactorily, viz. : “ which 
medicine seldome faileth, for it causeth greater pain in the finger than was in the 
tooth, by means whereof the greater paine taketh awaye the lesse.” 
* The Plate is E. B. 120, with corrected dissections drawn by Mr. J. E. Sowerby. 
