RANUNCULACE. 51 
Stem ascending. Flowers numerous, 1} to 1} inch in diameter, 
with oblong-oval sepals, not contiguous when fully expanded. 
Carpels spreading, with the beak nearly twice as long as in var. a, 
vulgaris. 
Var. y, minor. 
Stem decumbent or procumbent, usually bearing only 1 flower. 
Flowers about ? to 1 inch in diameter. Sepals oval or oblong-oval, 
not contiguous when fully expanded. Carpels erect, with an 
extremely short beak. 
In marshes and wet meadows, and by the side of streams. 
Common throughout Britain. Var. y on mountains. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring; var. y, 
Summer and Autumn. 
Rhizome short, horizontal, emitting numerous fleshy fibres. 
Stem ascending, or nearly erect, except in var. y, 9 to 18 inches 
high, slightly branched at the top. Lower leaves stalked, roundish, 
very deeply cordate at the base, with the lobes approximate or 
frequently incumbent, the margin varying from repand to crenate 
in the apical portion, and from crenate to sharply toothed in the 
basal region ; stem leaves on shorter stalks, or the upper ones 
sessile, reniform or deltoid-reniform in outline, with the lobes less 
approximate than those of the radical leaves; stipules very large, 
brown, membranous, with large free auricles. Flowers sub-corym- 
bose, rich yellow, paler exteriorly. Sepals slightly unequal in size, 
5to8innumber. Follicles various in number, spreading in varieties 
e and #, in which they are about ? inch long, erect in var. y, and 
about 2 to +inch in length. The difference in the direction of the 
follicles in these varieties is probably owing to their number, which 
is always less in var. y than in the others. Whole plant glabrous. 
Var. a and 6 grow in large tufts, but 7 has the stem usually solitary. 
Leaves dark green, slightly shining, paler below. 
The leaves are liable to considerable variation in the depth of 
the crenatures or teeth, and these variations seem to be independent 
of the forms of sepals and carpels. Var. Guerangerii may be not 
uncommon, but I have seen it only from near Edinburgh and 
Breadalbane. It is probably the C. riparia of Don, which he states 
to occur by the banks of the Thames, near London. Both Boreau 
and Don consider the plant described by them as the origin of the 
double-flowered Caltha often cultivated in gardens. 
U. OF ILL LIB. 
