1 RANUNCULACE^. 79 



12. Ranunculus circinatus, Sihth. 



Area 1 2 3 4 5 6 * S^-^ll * * 14. /^ /i^" ///.'/- 3/^ xX -^-V; 

 South limit in ? 



North limit in Edinburgh and ? 



Estimate of provinces 14. Estimate of counties 50. 



Latitude 50 — 56. English type of chstribution. 



Agi'arian region. Inferagrarian — Midagi'arian zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula. 



Ascends to 100 or 200 yards, in England. 



Range of mean annual temperature 51 — 47. 



Native. Lacustral. Inhabits ditches and streams. Pro- 

 bably frequent in England, and likely to occur in all the 

 first fourteen provinces ; but as with R. peucedanifoUus, 

 there seems much uncertainty respecting the coiTectness of 

 the localities indicated ; the ordinaiy 'pantothiix ' fonn of R. 

 aquatilis being frequently mislabelled R. cu-cinatus. When 

 planted in a flower pot, plunged into a pan of water, I found 

 the segments of the leaves afterwards produced, were thrice 

 the length of those produced before, much less rigid, and 

 the whole leaf convex above, not plane. Accidents twice 

 deprived me of the plants after a few months gi-owth. They 

 produced no flowers, though increasing freely in leaves and 

 ramification. I cannot avoid a still lingering suspicion 

 that R. circinatus is only a variety of R. aquatilis ; but as 

 we really have no positive test of sjiecies, except the ap- 

 parent persistence of certain physical characters, this may 

 be held as one for the present. 



