510 



BOTANY 



and Anonaceae. These three large families form a central group 

 about which the families with flowers less typically developed may 

 be arranged. The most uniform characteristic of the whole order is 

 the apocarpous gyncecium, although in the Nymphaeaceae, in some 

 Ranunculaceae, and also in the Lauraceae, the systematic position of 

 which is somewhat uncertain, the carpels are more or less united. 

 The convex flower-axis, the spiral arrangement of the parts, the 

 numerous stamens, are usual, if less constant, characteristics of this 

 order. There are included in the Polycarpicae, as is frequently the 

 case in other orders, isolated groups which do not exhibit a single one 

 of the distinctive characteristics of the order, but which, nevertheless, 

 show such marked affinity to other undoubtedly typical groups, that 

 they must be regarded as belonging to the same general alliance. 



The order in which the different families are named is not intended to be in- 

 dicative of their .relative position with regard to each other, in an ascending 

 series. Linked to the Ranunculaceae, on the one side, are the Nymphaeaceae 



Fig. 461.— Flower of Ranunculus scehratus : b, the same, cut through longitudinally ; magnified. 

 ; (After Baillon.) 



and Ceratqphyllaceae, and on the other the Magnoliaceae and allied families ; while 

 the Berberidaceae, Menispermaccae, and perhaps also the Lauraceae, form a separate 

 subordinate alliance within the order. 



Family Ranunculaceae. — Flowers hypogynous, usually actino- 

 morphic ; very rarely cyclic, usually ACYCLIC throughout or so at least 

 in the androscium and gyncecium ; perianth single or double, in the 

 last case frequently with corollaceous calyx and petals abnormally 

 developed, most commonly as nectaries ; stamens indefinite, usually 

 numerous ; pollen-grains with two to three pores ; carpels in 

 indefinite, oeten large, numbers, usually free; seeds with albumen. 

 Herbs, rarely woody plants, with alternate leaves without oil-glands 

 (Figs. 461-470). 



Most Ranunculaceae are medium-sized herbs, frequently with a 

 radical rosette of deeply-lobed leaves and sparingly-leaved fertile shoots. 

 The flowers are usually conspicuous, often solitary, and then terminal 

 or axillary, or sometimes aggregated, in loose, and more rarely compact, 

 racemose or cymose inflorescences. Insect-pollination is universal, and 

 has produced corresponding adaptations to it in the flowers, such as 



