RANUNCULUS. 27 



Wordsworth has celebrated this harbinger of spring in two pretty 

 odes addressed " to the small Celandine." It is the Lesser Celandine 

 of our old herbalists ; and although it has lost its medical reputation, 

 it retains the favour of our children undiminished. In woods, and 

 especially in rookeries, it is closely gregarious, and, as Linnseus ex- 

 presses it, " Hsec suffocat adstantes plantas uti AlUum ursinum." — 

 The leaves are frequently marked with a large purplish blotch, as are 

 likewise those of R. hederaceus. 



12. R. AURicoMus. Abbot Fl. Bedf. 121. — B. Abundantly in 

 the woods and denes in the vicinity of the Pease-bridge ; and in the 

 woods at Abbey St. Bathans, J. Hardy. On the Whiteadder near 

 Whitehall, G. Henderson. Banks of the Tweed about Dryburgh, 

 Mrs. P. Clay. — D. Wooded banks below Norham-Castle.— R. In 

 boggy ground on the south declivity of the hill of Sterock m the 

 parish of Yetholm, Rev. J. Baird.— May. 



13. R. ACRis. — Old pastures ; muirlands ; road-sides, &c. very 

 common. — June-Sept. — " I have gathered specimens of this, and of 

 R. repens, with the calycine segments metamorphosed into leaflets," 

 J. Hardy. 



14. R. REPENS. — Meadows, road-sides, and hedge-banks, very 

 common. It loves a moist soil, and infests some gardens. Hence I 

 have heard it called the iiebil'isgutJi, — a name which indicates its 

 troublesomeness, and its peculiar habit of throwing out long runners 

 or trails. 



15. R. BULBOSXJS. — Meadows and new pastures, very common; 

 but Mr. Hardy tells me that it does not occur within the parish of 

 Cockburnspath, nor has he met with it in any part of that district, — 

 a circumstance that may be owing to the want of the old dry pastures 

 so frequent to the south of the Tweed. — May-July. — This and R. 

 acris are sometimes used, by country people, to stanch the bleeding 

 from wounds. The bruised herbs are applied directly to the cut, on 

 which they must act as an irritant, and, by producing a sore, may 

 occasion greater inconvenience than would have resulted from the 

 loss of blood. 



16. R. SCELERATUS. — In ditches and watery places, frequent in 

 the neighbourhood of Berwick and along the coast of N. Durham ; 

 but of rare occurrence in the western parts of our district. — June- 

 Aug. 



17. R- ARVENSis. — Corn-fields. In many places well known as 

 a troublesome weed to the reapers, but rare in the vicinity of Berwick, 

 and on the eastern parts of Berwickshire generally ; nor does it occur, 

 according to Dr. F. Douglas, in the neighbourhood of Kelso. By 

 many an over-exact florist this is branded as an alien, having, it is con- 



1. Ranunculus hirsutus. — N. In a field neai- the Heather-house, Bam- 

 bro'shire, Geo. R. Tate. — D. July 9, 1851, 1 gathered a few fine specimens 

 on waste ground at Velvet-hall. It is unquestionably a mere straggler 

 with us. 



