EANUNCTJLACEa!. 59 



Flowers white. Plant floating in water or creeping in mud . . 1. Water S. 

 Flowers yellow. Plant terrestrial or not floating. 

 leaves all undicided. 

 Petals .5, or fewer. 



Carpels with a stout beak. Stem erect, 2 feet or more. 



Flowers large 2. Great S. 



Carpels with a short point. Stems seldom above a foot, 

 often decumbent. Flowers little more than half an 

 inch in diameter or smaller. 

 Petals much longer than the calyx. Leaves mostly 



narrow 3. Spear S. 



Petals very small. Leaves mostly ovate or broad lan- 

 ceolate 4. Snnlcetonque It. 



Petals more than 5, usually 8 or 9 5. Figwort R. 



Leaves divided or deeply cut. 



Carpels smooth or slightly tuberculate near the edge. Eoot- 

 stock (in all but and 11) perennial. 

 Leaves glabrous or very slightly downy. 

 Petals conspicuous, bright yellow. Carpels downy, in a 



globular head 7. Wood R. 



Petals very small. Carpels small, numerous, in an ovate 



or oblong head 6. Celery-leaved S. 



Leaves hairy. 



Calyx spreading but not reflexed. 

 Stems erect without runners. Lower leaves palmately 



divided 8. Meadow B. 



Eunners creeping and rooting. Central division of the 



lower leaves projecting beyond the others ... 9. Creeping JS. 

 Calyx closely reflected on the peduncle. 

 Hootstock or thickened base of the stem perennial. 



Carpels perfectly smooth 10. Bulbotca S. 



Annual. Carpels marked with a few tubercles within 



the margin 11. Hairy R. 



Carpels covered with tubercles or prickles. Annuals. 

 Leaves glabrous, segments narrow. Carpels very prickly. 



Plant erect 13. Corn R. 



Leaves hairy, segments broad. Carpels tuberculate. Stems 



weak 12. Small-fowered R. 



The showy double Ranunculus of our gardens belongs to a Levant species 

 (iZ. asiaticus). Double-flowered varieties of several others, especially of our 

 common yellow Buttercups, and of the white-flowered Contmeutal R. aconi- 

 tifolius, are known to our gardeners under the name of Bachelor's buttons. 



1. TVater Ranunculus. Ranunculus aquaticus, Linn. 



A most variable species, but easily known by its stem either floating in 

 water, or creeping along mud, by its white flowers, and very smaU ovoid car- 

 pels marked with transverse wrinkles. It is glabrous in all its parts, except- 

 ing sometimes the carpels and their receptacle. When floating, the lower 

 leaves and sometimes all, remain under water, and are divided into imme- 

 rous very fine linear segments, whilst those wh'ch spread on tlie surface are 

 rounded and more or less cut into 3 or 5 wedge-shaped, obovate, or rounded 

 lobes. When creeping in mud or in very shallow water, the leaves are often 

 all orbicular and broadly lobed. Flower-stalks axillary and 1-flowered. 

 Petals 5 or sometimes more, without any scale over the spot at their base. 



In ponds, streams, and wet ditches throughout Europe and Russian Asia, 

 North America, and Australia. Abundant in Britain. Fl. the whole season. 

 Many of the forms it assumes are striking, and have been distinguished as 

 species, but the characters, although often to a certain degree permanent, 

 appear at other times so inconstant, and even to depend so much on the 

 situation the plant grows in, that we can only consider them as mere varie- 

 ties. The following are the most prominent. 



