298 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 54 



than a master stroke of the new taxonomy, Cordus' bringing in of 

 momordica and bryonia to augment the series of genera of the 

 cucurbitaceas.' He had examined their small flowers, dissected 

 the little bryony berries, and compared their plan of structure 

 with that of their robust innocuous neighbors of the fields and gar- 

 dens, and by these tokens had found them all to be of one lineage. 



Singularly the little soft-leaved weed Lithospermum arvense had 

 never been thought of as in the least degree akin to the coarse, 

 rough, stinging borrage and bugloss and anchusa; but Cordus 

 describing the plant in every part with a minuteness and accuracy 

 unapproached by any earlier writer, concludes it all with the propo- 

 sition that its affinities are with the anchusas and echiums. "It is 

 of their kindred ; soihething which the ancients did not apprehend. " ^ 

 It had been through a comparison of their inflorescences, and by a 

 recognition of the same floral plan and fruit characters that he had 

 become able confidently to add lithospermum to the family of the 

 borrage-worts ; and yet not by these alone ; for he avers that as to 

 properties also it is much like the others. 



In his delimitation of the genus Ranunculus Cordus defers 

 unwontedly to floral characters, and slights those of root, stem, and 

 foliage. This is very interesting as proving that the trend of his 

 mind has been strongly in the direction of what has come to be the 

 established and settled first principle of classification. 



Upon this point the subjoined list of his Ranunculus species will 

 be instructive. They are given in the order in which he places them. 

 The equivalents of them, that is to say the identification of them, in 

 modem nomenclature is somewhat doubtful in only one or two cases. 



Modem 



Ranunculus sceleratus. 

 Ranunculus Sardous. 

 Anemone ranunculoides. 

 Anemone nemorosa. 

 Ranunculus arvensis. 

 PRanunculus repens. 

 R. acris, double-flowered. 

 ?R. acris, single-flowered. 

 Ranunculus bulbosus. 

 Pulsa,tilla vemalis. 

 Anemone silvestris. 

 Ranunculus flammula. 



