8 RANUNCULACE*. [Rammculus. 



branching fibres, interspersed with oblong-oyate, elliptical, or pear-shaped, fleshy 

 and juicy tubers, said by Smith to be annual, though the root itself is perennial. 

 Stems one or more, leafy, erect or decumbent and spreading, their extremities 

 upright, not much branched, from a few inches to a span long, weak, hollow and 

 succulent, sometimes it is said bearing similar tubers to those at the root, in the 

 axils of the leafstalks. Leaves resembling those of Caltha or some kinds of Cycla- 

 men, but smaller, 1 or 2 inches long, roundish heart-shaped or cordato-reniform, 

 obtuse, the lowermost obscurely angulato-crenate or waved, those higher up some- 

 times distinctly angular or even lobed, often with a row of distant, pale, glandular 

 dots along the margin, mostly variegated with paler spots, and frequently blotched 

 with purplish black in the centre, beneath without spots, venoso-reticulate, shin- 

 ing. Radical leaves fascicled, on very long, hollow, grooved petioles, expanding 

 into broad, white, sheathing bases, tliose of the stem opposite or alternate, on 

 stalks becoming shorter as they ascend. Flowers solitary, on very long terminal 

 angular and furrowed peduncles, an inch or more in diameter, closing before night 

 and in rainy weather. Sepals 3, seldom 5, deciduous, roundish ovate, concave, 

 membranaceous, many-ribbed, streaked or clouded, greenish, with a short fold-like 

 appendage at their base, their margins narrow, whitish or yellowish. Petals 8 — 

 12, mostly 8 or 9, very much larger than the calyx, ovate-oblong or elliptical, 

 varying in breadth, obtuse, plane, and quite entire, bright golden yellow and 

 highly varnished, becoming bleached by age and light, their lower part with the 

 appearance of having been greased or wetted, from the absence of the opaque 

 colouring giving a degree of translucency to that portion of the petal, venoso-stri- 

 ate, more or less tinged with green or brown at the back, each with a nectariferous 

 pore, just above its insertion guarded by au erect, concave, slightly notched, 

 brownish scale. Stamens numerous, bright yellow ; anthers erect, bursting along 

 their outer edges (extrorse), elliptical, flat. Styles obsolete ; stigmas sessile, ovate- 

 orbicular, bristly, 2-lobed. 



§§ Leaves divided, lobed or cut. 



6. E. auricomus, L. Wood Crowfoot. Siveet Crowfoot. Goldi- 

 locks. " Leaves glabrous, radical ones reniform 3 -partite and 

 cut, stem-leaves divided to the base into linear subdentate seg- 

 ments, calyx pubescent shorter than the petals, head of fruit glo- 

 bose, achenes downy." — Br. Fl. p. 10. E. B. t. 624. 



On moist shady banks, in groves and thickets, but not very commonly. Fl. 

 April, May. %. 



E.Med. — About the grounds at St. John's, sparingly, and in Apley wood. 

 Wood by Little Smallbrook farm. Inwards copse by Ashey farm. Wood 

 between Wootton church and Whippingham. In a copse called Steepworth, a 

 little east of Kerne. Sparingly in Quarr copse. Grounds of Northfield House, 

 Ryde, and wood between Knighton House and Kerne, Dr. T Bell-Salter. 

 Marina wood by Apley, abundantly. Munwell warren. Dr. T. B. Salter. 



W. Med. — In Lorden, Westridge and Sluccombe coppices near Shorwell, but 

 sparingly. New Barn Hummit, Calbourne, also Kingston copse, plentiful. 



Root abrupt, emitting a tuft of copious, whitish, cylindrical.fibres. Stems one 

 or more, a foot high at most, usually shorter, rounded, hollow, a little branched, 

 erect or somewhat spreading or reclining, glabrous or slightly downy on the 

 upper part. Radical leaves several, on long, channelled, downy stalks, with white 

 sheathing bases, roundish or reniform, more or less hairy, variously and deeply 

 divided into 3 or 5, lobed and cut wedge-shaped segments. Stem-leaves quite 

 sessile, cleft to the very base, with about 5—7 linear pointed segments which on 

 the uppennost leaf are entire or nearly so, on the rest again forked, cleft or 

 toothed. Floivers solitary, tenninal, on long downy pedicels, when perfect rich 

 golden yellow, but the petals in the earlier blossoms aie commonly but partially 

 developed or altogether wanting, the calyx in such cases assuming in some degree 

 their form and colour on the edges, but in this imperfect state the sepals usually 



