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Native varieties of Ranunculus. 



By Robert J. Aitken, Jedburgh. 



The members of this order may appear to the careless 

 observer to be plants of little account, mere commonplace 

 objects in Nature ; yet the Buttercup is one of her most 

 finished productions, being a perfect flower, that is, one having 

 four sets of organs enabling it to perform efiiciently its work 

 in the world, namely, to perpetuate its species from season 

 to season and from century to century. All who desire an 

 object lesson in Nature can prove this for themselves by 

 plucking a specimen and carefully examining its structure. 

 The first part to be noted is a whorl of five small leaves, all 

 separate and equal in size, growing round the top of the stalk. 

 These are the sepals which protect the infant bud, and act as 

 a support to the petals when in bloom. The second part forms 

 the coloured portion of the flower, consisting of five petals, again 

 all separate and equal in size. Their duty is to attract insects 

 for fertilising purposes, and to act as a shield to protect from 

 injury the more delicate parts of the flower. The third part 

 comprises the stamens or male organs. These are a large number 

 of thread-like objects growing round the stalk underneath the 

 central part of the flower, and each terminating in a small box 

 in which the fertilising pollen is collected. They are called the 

 anthers. The fourth part is the female section of the organism. 

 Growing directly on the top of the flowei--stalk is a greenish 

 yellow conical body, or seed-producing organ, consisting of a 

 number of parts named carpels, the lower division of each 

 being much swollen, and named the ovary, in which are 

 contained the immature seeds. These possess no power of 

 germination until fertilised by the pollen from the stamens. 



