154 RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 
° 
CURSED CROWFOOT 
Raninculus sceleratus, L. 
Other English names: Celery-leaved Crowfoot, Ditch Crowfoot, 
Bog Buttercup. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: May to August. 
Seed-time: June to October. : 
Range: New Brunswick to Minnesota, southward to Florida; also 
in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado,and Utah. Native to Europe 
and Asia. 
Habitat: Wet meadows, low pastures, along ditches and in bogs. 
Cattle ordinarily are careful to reject all Buttercups, because 
of their acrid and poisonous juices, but when 
first turned out to grass in the spring they 
are likely to graze so eagerly as to get some 
of the young leaves of this one, which causes 
an inflammation of mouths and digestive 
tracts, sometimes so severe as to be fatal. 
Stem stout, sometimes over an inch thick 
at the base, smooth, hollow, much-branched, 
six inches to two feet in height. The alter- 
nate leaves are also very smooth and rather 
thick, the basal ones rounded heart-shape in 
outline, but deeply three- to five-lobed, 
bluntly toothed or entire, with long, broad, 
flattened petioles; stem-leaves also three- 
parted, but the lobes are more slender, ap* 
proaching to wedge-shape, those near the 
top becoming linear. Flowers small, the five 
pale yellow petals scarcely exceeding the 
calyx; stamens and styles numerous. Ra- 
nunculus fruits are composed of many one- 
seeded carpels tipped by more or less elon- 
gated styles; in this species the heads are 
oblong, the length nearly thrice the thick- 
fre, 108,— Cursed DES each one closely set with many minute, 
Crowfoot (Renuncu- Short-beaked carpels, each containing one 
lus sceleratus). xX}. oval, flattened, dull brown seed. 
