RANUNCULUS. 



PL 7S1. Willd. n. 57. Ait. n. 35. Jacq. Aiiftr. t. 48. 

 (Mclampyrum luteum ; Ger. Em. 90. Lob. Ic. 37.) — 

 Loas-es linear-wcdge-diapcd, in three deep many-clefl lobes. 

 Seeds with fickle-fhapcd beaks. Stalks radical, fiiiglc- 

 flowered. — Native of corn-fields in the fouth of Europe, 

 and the Levant; cultivated by Miller at Chelfea in 1739. 

 A fmall annual, flowering in the early part of funimer. 

 Root thread- (haped, with a few fibres. Stem none. Leaves 

 feveral, pale green, downy, about two inches long ; their 

 legments narrow and entire. Stalks fimple, downy, taller 

 than the leaves, each bearing a Imall yellow flniuer, whofe 

 calyx is ereft. Fruit large, ovate, or nearly cylindrical, 

 befet on all fides with the long, prominent, afcending, 

 incurved, compreffed, downy, fpinous-pointed beaks of the 

 feeds. 



S3. R. polyphylliis. Many-leaved Water Crowfoot. 

 «< Waldtt. et Kitaibel Hung." Willd. n. 58.—'' Leaves 

 under water oblong, ftalked, capillary ; floating ones wedge- 

 fhaped, threc-lobed ; thofe above the water elliptical. Stem 

 ereft." — Native of the waters of Hungary. Annual. Stem 

 nine inches high, ereft ; branched in the upper part. Leaves 

 that are under water verv numerous, entirely covering that 

 part of the ftem, oblong, the length of the nail, each 

 fupported by a capillary footjlalk an inch long : the float- 

 ing leaves fmall, wedge-ihaped, three-lobed, entire, as long 

 as the former, their footjlalks thicker and (horter. Branches 

 an inch long, ereft, riling above the water, and bearing 

 elliptical obtufe leaves, tapering each way, from four to 

 fix lines long, on fliort footjlalhs. Flotuers extremely fmall, 

 yellow. IVilldeneiv. 



84. R. hedcraceus. Ivy Crowfoot. Linn. Sp. PI. 781. 

 Willd. n. 59. Ait. n. 36. Fl. Brit. n. 14. Engl. Bot. 

 t. 2003. Curt. Lond. fafc. 4. t. 39. Fl. Dan. t. 321. 

 Dalech. Hift. 103 l. (R. hederaceus rivulorum fe exten- 

 dens, atra macula notatus ; Bauh. Hifl:. v. 3. 774.) — Leaves 

 fmooth, roundifli, kidney-lTiaped, with three or five entire 

 lobes. Stem creeping. Stamens from five to ten. Seeds 

 corrugated. — Native of watery places, on a fandy or gra- 

 velly foil, in England, Germany, France, &c. flowering 

 from May to Auguft. Roots fibrous, perennial. Steitis 

 either creeping or floating, proftratc, branched, round, 

 fmooth, and fucculent. Lmvcs ftalked, fmooth, and 

 (hining, nearly uniform ; often blacklfli in the diflc. Flowers 

 very fmall, on fimple, axillary or lateral, ftalks. Petals 

 linear-oblong, rather exceeding the c.ilyx in length, white, 

 with yellow claws. Stamens fcarcely ever more than ten. 

 Fruit globofe. Seeds ovate, incurved, fomewhat comprefled, 

 with a very fmall inflexed beak, and numerous, lateral, cor- 

 rugated or reticulated veins. 



85. R. nquatilis. White Floating Crowfoot. Linn. 

 Sp. PI. 781. Willd. n. 60. Ait. n. 37. Fl. Brit. n. 15. 

 Engl. Bot. t. loi. Ger. Em. 829. — Leaves capillary un- 

 der water ; above fomewhat peltate. Stamens numerous. 

 Seeds corrugated. — Native of pools, ditches, and rivers, 

 throughout Europe, mantling the furface with its copious 

 white bloffoms, in the early part of fummer. The roots 

 are long, fibrous, and perennial. Stems floating under 

 water, long, round, branched, leafy. Leaves ftalked, 

 fmooth ; the uppermoft floating, ulually peltate, with va- 

 rious blunt notches ; the next deeply three-lobed, or even 

 ternate ; the lowermoft immerfed, repeatedly three-cleft, 

 with innumerable capillary fegmerts. Floivers floating on 

 long fimple ftalks, oppofite to the leaves. Petals obovate, 

 much longer than the calyx, white, with yellow claws. 

 Nedary tubular. Stamens thirty or more. Fruit like the 

 laft, but the feeds more numerous, and generally briftly, 

 fomewhat obovate. 



Varieties, as we deem them, of this fpccics are, ift, thai 

 whofe leaves are all immerfed, and entirely capillary, 

 figured in Ger. Em. 827. f. 3 : 2dly, ihc circinalus of Sibth. 

 Oxon. 175, figured in Pluk. Phyt. t. 55. f. 2, whofe 

 leaves are all likewife in capillary divifiont, but finer and 

 fmaller than the former : 3dly, ihc Jluviatilis of Willdenow, 

 n. 61, peucedanoides of Uesfont. Atlant. v. i. 444, figured 

 :n Fl. Dan. t. 376, whofe leaves are not only in capillary 

 fegments, but confiderably elongated, by the influence, as 

 we conceive, of the running water, in which this fort is 

 always found. The feeds indeed are not briftly, in our 

 fpecimens of this laft variety, but naked, as in hederaceus, 

 which fpecics agrees with every variety of aquatilis, in the 

 corrugations of the feeds, as above defcribed. 



We have thus added twenty-four fpecics to Willdenow's 

 number, following his arrangement, for the prcfcnt at leall ; 

 not only for the convenience of our readers, but becaufe 

 it would be very difficult to make a pcrfeft one on any 

 known principles ; the feveral fpecics being allied by lo 

 many charadters, and fo diflimilar in others, that nothing 

 could be more precarious than to feek the clue of nature 

 through fuch a labyrinth. The feeds perhaps ought to 

 form the balls of a fpecific arrangement, if they might not 

 even lead to generic diilinflions. 



No fmall curiofity in the hiftory of this genus is the 

 R. alatus, of Poiret in Lamarck's Dift. n. 72, which, by 

 his defcription, proves to be no other than Gymnoflyles pte- 

 rojpenna of .luiTieu. (See GyM>loSTYLEv.i The pumilus of 

 Poiret, n. 82, appears to us a variety oi aquatilis, growing 

 in (hallow, and perhaps fluduating, waters ; whence, 

 though its /eaves are all deeply eut, their fegments are 

 not quite capilUary, but linear and obtufe. We have Swifs 

 fpecimens aniwering to this author's defcription. 



Ranunculus, in Gardening, contdiins phnts o{ the hardy, 

 herbaceous, perennial kind, of which the fpecies cultivated 

 are, the Perfian crowfoot, or garden ranunculus, (R. afiali- 

 cus) ; the aconite-leaved crowfoot (R. aconitifolius) ; the 

 upright meadow crowfoot (R. acris) ; the creeping crow- 

 foot (R. repens); and the embracing-leaved crowfoot 

 (R. amplexicaulis). But there are other fpecies that may 

 be cultivated for variety. 



Of the firft fpecies tiie varieties are exceedingly numer- 

 ous, being fometimes divided into two clafl'es, as the old 

 Turkey kinds, and the Perfian kinds, the varieties of the 

 latter amounting to many liuiidreds, and being confiderably 

 more various, rich, and beautiful in colour than thofe of the 

 others. 



But in the former of thefe forts they rife with a ftrong 

 generally unbranching ftalk a foot high, terminated by one 

 large double flower, fometimes emitting one or two (mailer 

 ones from its fides, and of which there are red-flowered, 

 fcarlet-flowered, yellow-flowered, and fcarlet turban-flower- 

 ed, &c. ; but being feldom tinged with different colours, as 

 in the Perfian kinds. 



And in the latter kind the plants rife eight or nine inches 

 high, generally branching from the bottom, producing 

 from five or ten to twenty or more flowers on each root, 

 and of which there are fingle-flowered, femi- double-flowered, 

 full-double-flowered, large and full like a double role, being 

 generally filled with petals to the very centre, forming a 

 regular globular body, of admirable elegance, of all forts 

 of the moit beautiful colours in different varieties, and of 

 numerous degrees of deeper and lighter (hades, ftripes, and 

 tinges in the feveral colours. Indeed Martyn obferves, 

 that the varieties produced of late years from the feeds of 

 femi-double flowers are unbounded ; and that Mr. Mad- 

 dock remarks that they are more numerous than of any 

 8 other 



