RANUNCULACEAE (CROWFOOT FAMILY) 157 
Seed-time: Late June to August. * 
Range: Nova Scotia to Virginia. On the Atlantic Coast an immi- 
grant from Europe, but several varieties are native in the West 
and the South. 
Habitat: Moist meadows and pastures, roadsides, waste places. 
Where this plant is plentiful it is likely to monopolize a large 
amount of space; for after the early bloom is past its energies are 
devoted, for the remainder of the grow- 
ing season, to throwing out numerous 
slender runners, one to three feet long, 
from every joint of which a young plant 
may take root. The roots are fibrous 
and tufted; the stem is about a foot 
high, and hairy, but often only slightly 
so; the runners also are usually hairy at 
the base, the leaves on veins and peti- 
oles. Leaves three-parted, all three 
segments usually, and the terminal one 
always, with a footstalk; all irregularly 
cut and toothed, often blotched with 
white. Flowers bright golden yellow, 
nearly an inch broad, the petals ob- 
ovate, much longer than the spreading 
sepals. Fruits in globose heads, the 
achenes flattened and having a thin mar- 
gin and a stout, bent beak. (Fig. 107.) 
Means of control Fic. 107. — Creeping But- 
tercup (Ranunculus repens). 
Its manner of growth causes the weed x 3. 
to form patches, which, if not too many 
and too large, may be cleaned out with the hoe, of course before 
the first seed is developed. Ground too rankly overspread to be 
so cleansed should be put under cultivation for a season. 
BULBOUS BUTTERCUP 
Rantinculus bulbdsus, L. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: May to July. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
