RANUNCULUS. 



at a diftance. In habit and general refemblance they clofcly 

 accord. 



14. R. Cymbalaria. Small Trailing Crowfoot. Piir(h 



n. e. '< Leaves heart or kidney- (haped, with five blunt 



teeth. Stem creeping, thread-fliaped. Flower-llalks folitary, 

 moftly two-flowered. Petals linear. Fruit oblong." — In 

 faline marflics, near the fait works of Onondago, New York, 

 flowering in June and July. Perennial, fomewhat refem- 

 bling the following. Floivers fmall, pale yellow, fometimes 

 white. Purjh. 



15. K.falfuginofus. Salt-mar(h Crowfoot. " Pallas's Tra- 

 vels, fmall edition, v. 3. 173." Willd. n. II. (R. rutheni- 

 cus ; Jacq. Hort. Vind. v. 3. 19. t. 31. R. repens, flora 

 in caule fmguhri, foliis varie feftie ; Amm. Ruth. 81. t. 13. 



f. 2.) Leaves ovate, fomewhat heart-lhaped ; toothed at 



the extremity. Stem creeping, thread-fhaped. Flower- 

 ftalks folitary, moftly fingle-flowered. Petals obovatc. 

 Fruit nearly globofe. — Found by Gmelin, on the banks ot 

 the Neva ; Ammann ; by Pallas in the fait plains of Siberia, 

 beyong the lake Baical. Thcjlowers are yellow, as big as 

 our common Crowfoots, being more than ten times the fize 

 of the laft. Their petals are about ten, pbovate. The root 

 fends out long runners, like a garden ilrawberry. Gmelin's 

 fpecimen is much fmaller than Jacquin's figure. 



\6. K.luUatus. Portugal Crowfoot. Linn. Sp. PI. 774. 

 Willd. n. 10. Ait. n. 8. (R. lufitanicus; Dod. Pcmpt. 4^9. 

 R. autumnalis Clufii ; Ger. Em. 954. R. hifitanicus Clulii ; 

 ib. 955.) — Leaves ovate, ferrated. Flower-ftalks radical, 

 fmgle-flowered, hairy. — Native of Portugal and the north 

 of Africa, cultivated in England before 1640, but now 

 fcarcely feen. It flowers in May and June, and has a 

 perennial fibrous root, more like Gerarde's fig. 10 than 11. 

 Leaves all radical, ftalked, ovate, ribbed and veiny, feme- 

 what hairy, itrongly and unequally ferrated, an inch or an 

 inch and half long ; fometimes, according t» Clufius, blif- 

 tered. Flowers yellow, on fimple, hairy, upriglit, radical 

 flalks, three or four inches long. Petals mote than five, 

 narrovv-obovate. The old authors delineate two kinds, 

 generally fuppofed to be varieties, but which may poflibly 

 be fpecies. We have not feen either, except in a dried 

 ftate. 



17. R. Fkar'ia. Pilewort, or Lelfer Celandine. Linn. 

 Sp. PI. 774. Willd. n. 12. Ait. n. 9. Fl. Brit. n. 4. 

 Engl. Bot. t. 584. Curt. Lond. fafc. 2. t. 39. Mart. 

 Ruft. t. 21. Bulliard t. 43. (Chelidonium minus ; Matth. 

 Valgr. V. I. 578. Fuchf. Hift. 867. Ger. Em. 816.) — 

 Leaves heart-lhaped, angular, fmooth, italked. Petals 

 numerous. — Native of wafte ground throughout Europe, 

 in moift:, fhady, or bufhy places, flowering in the early 

 fpring. Dr. Sibthorp found it common in Greece ; and 

 there can be no doubt of its being, as all botanifts have 

 judged, xt^''c<ivir.i' 1o /iix^ov, the Leffer Celadine, of Diofco- 

 rides. Root perennial, fibrous, with many flefhy, pear- 

 fhaped, annual knobs, whole appearance gave rife to the 

 Latin, as well as Englifh, name of this fpecies, and to an 

 idea that the plant might be ferviceable in the piles, which 

 thofe who believe, may confult Gerarde for the mode of 

 application. The Jlsnis are leafy, and moftly fingle-flovered. 

 Leaves imooth and lliining. Flowers ftalked ; with three, 

 fometimes five, leaves to the calyx ; and eight, occafionally 

 ten, elliptic-oblong, highly poliftied petals, which fade to 

 white in bright funftiine. 



18. R. frigUus. Alpine Siberian Crowfoot. Willd. 

 n. 13. — Radical leaves wedgefhape-ovate, five-toothed at 

 the extremity ; thofe of the ftem feffile, palmate. — Native 

 of the alps of Siberia. Willdenow fays he received this by 

 the name of gracilis, meaning glacialis, " with which it igrees 



in the fize, and perhaps colour, of the Jiotuer, but 1' 

 abundantly diftinft in tlie leaves." Several Siberian un- 

 named fpccimciis, in the Linman herbarium, anfv/cr ex- 

 actly to Willdenow'sdefcription. The radical leaves are ft-- 

 veral, ftalked, between half an inch and an inch in length, 

 fmooth ; rounded and entire at the bafe ; abrupt and va- 

 rioully cut into broad blunt teeth, we might almoft fay 

 lobes, at the fummit. Utem ere£t, ufually fingle-flowered, 

 with two or three, alternate, fefiile, more deeply lobed, or 

 palmate, leaves. Calyx brown, hairy. Petals five, inverfely 

 heart-fhaped, apparently white. The Jloijuer is fo like gla- 

 cialis, that we cannot but fufpeft the dinerence of the leaves, 

 however great, to be but cafual. At any rate, they arc 

 fometimes fo deeply cut, tiiat tiiis fpecies might perhaps, 

 without violence, have been placed in the following feftion, 

 next to glacialis. 



19. R. Thora. Kidney-leaved Crowfoot. Poifon-root 

 of the Swifs. Linn. Sp. PI. 775. Willd. n. 14. Ait. 

 n. 10. Jacq. Auftr. t. 442. Obf. fafc. I. 25. t. 13. 

 (Thora major et minor ; Camer. Epit. 825, 826. Th. val- 

 denfis, ct montis Baldi ; Ger. Em. 966. Pfeudo aconitum 

 pardalianches ; Matth. Valgr. v. 2.430.) — Leaves kidney- 

 (haped, abrupt, crenate, reticulated ; the radical ones on 

 long ftalks. Stems with one or two flowers. Brafteas lan- 

 ceolate Native of the alps of Switzerland, Auftria, and 



Greece, as well as of mount Baldus, near Verona, flower- 

 ing rather early in fummer. It is faid to have been formerly 

 in the Enghfli gardens, but has never fallen under our ob- 

 fervation. Root perennial, of thick, tapering, flefhy fibres 

 or rather knobs. Stem folitary, fmooth, fimple, near a fpan 

 high ; terminating in one, rarely more, long-ftalked golden 



Jloivers, about half an inch wide ; its calyx-leaves lanceolate, 

 coloured, fmooth, like every other part of the plant. Leaves 

 about two incheswide, andone long, rather coriaceous, ftrong- 

 ly reticulated with veins, neatly crenate, terminating either 

 abruptly, with a notch, or elongated into three acute, entire, 

 triangular, central lobes ; the uppermoft, or floral, ones, 

 lanceolate and entire ; the radical ones only on long flender 

 ftalks. Fruit globular, of a few, large, tumid, ovate 

 feeds, with hooked points. The root of this plant is reported 

 to be extremely acrid and poifonous, its juice having been 

 ufed formerly, by the Swifs hunters of wild beafts, to en- 

 venom their darts, whofe wound by that means becomes 

 fpeedily fatal and incurable. Hence the name, from fbo^x, 

 corruption, or venom. We can fee no poflible reafon for dif- 

 tinguiftiing the greater and fmaller kinds, even as permanent, 

 or well-marked, varieties. 



Seftion 2. Leaves di^eded ami divided. 



20. R. creticus, Cretan Crowfoot. Linn. Sp. PI. 775. 

 Willd. n. 15. Ait. n. 11. (R. creticus latifolius ; Cluf. 

 Hift. v. I. 239. Ger. Em. 963.) — ^. R. macrophyllus ; 

 Desfont. Atlant. V. 1.437. Lamarck Did. n. 19. — Radi- 

 cal leaves kidney-fhaped, crenate, fomewhat lobed ; ftem- 

 leaves in three deep, lanceolate, entire fegments. Stem many- 

 flowered. — Native of Crete ; cultivated in the Oxford gar- 

 den in 1658, but perhaps now loft. The root is perennial, 

 of many thick, tapering, fleftiy fibres. Stem thick, mode- 

 rately branched, eighteen inches, or more, in height, hairy as 

 well as the reft of the herbage. Radical leaves from two to 

 four inches long, and more in breadth, kidney-fhaped, reticu- 

 lated with ftrong veins, light green, downy, unequally di- 

 vided into about feven three-cleft, or coarfely notched, fhal- 

 low lobes : Jlem-leaves alternate, in three deep, oblong, cb- 

 tufe, entire lobes ; the bafe tapering or wedge-fhaped. 

 Flowers feveral, yellow, nearly as large as R. Lingua, n. 3. 

 Cc/y-v reflexed, ovate, loofely hairy. /S appears, by the ac- 

 count of M. Desfontaines, to differ merely in having the 



lower 



