EANUNCULACEiE. _6 



5, spurred at base. Petals 5; blade oblong, with a pit or gland at base; 

 claw filiform. Starn. 5 — 15. Pistils oo, crowded on a long slender 

 receptacle, becoming thin-walled achenes. , 



1. M. minimus. L. — About San Francisco, and in the hills east of 

 the Bay, commonly in very much reduced states; the spikes often 

 less than an inch long, and very slender. March — May. 



2. M. alopecuroides, Greene. Stouter and low : achenes with prom- 

 inent spreading beak, in short thick spike. — Low plains near Antioch. 



4. RA.NUNCULUS, Pliny (Buttercup). Flowers solitary or scattered, 

 regular, yellow or white. Sepals 5, commonly reflexed. Petals 5 or 10, 

 with nectariferous scale or pit near the base within. The many pistils 

 becoming beaked achenes disposed in rounded heads. 



* Leaves undivided; achenes not strongly flattened. 



1. R. Flammula, L. var. intermedins, Hook. Stems slender, even 

 to the filiform, rooting at the lower joints: leaves lanceolate, entire: fl. 

 2 — 5 lines broad: achenes few, with a very sioul straight but short beak. — 

 Small herb, found along the margins of lakes and pools. 



2. R. pusillus, Poir.? Annual, slender, 2 — 10 in. high, glabrous 

 except the villous-ciliate sheathing stipules: leaves round- ovate to 

 lanceolate and linear, the radical ones coarsely toothed, J4 — % in. long: 

 stem simple and scapiform or with a few branches: fl. minute; sepals 

 subscarious, not reflexed; achenes many in a small globose head, 

 delicately lubercitlale, neither margined nor beaked. — Moist places in 

 Mariu, Sonoma and Napa Counties. 



* * Leaves ternately lobed, cleft or divided; fl. yellow; achenes flattened 



3. R. bepens, L. Pubescent; stems rooting at the lower joints: 

 leaves ternately parted, often subdivided: sepals spreading: petals 5; 

 achenes l}4 lines long, rather sharply margined, the beak nearly straight; 

 \% lines long. — Frequent in lawns; scarcely naturalized. 



L R. niiix i mus, Greene. Pilose or hirsute, the stout stems 2 — 5 ft. 

 long, reclining but not rooting: leaves broad, tern ate; leaflets laciniately 

 lobed: petals 5 — 8, oblong-obovate, obtuse, 7 — 10 lines long: head of achenes 

 roundish or broadly ovoid; beak long, straight or slightly incurved. — 

 In swampy places; not common. April — June. 



5. R. Bloomeri, Wats. A foot or two in height, stout, usually glabrous, 

 sometimes pilose: radical leaves sometimes undivided and round-cordate 

 with coarse teeth or lobes; the later ones 3 — 9-foliate, the leaflets with 

 somewhat rounded teeth: petals 5, retuse, % in. long: achenes long- 

 beaked, forming asubglobose head. — Common in wet ground. Feb.-May. 



