N. 0. RANUNCULACEJE. 13 



Roots: — biennial, . paired, tuberous; daughter- tuber ovoid- 

 oblong to ellipsoid, 2'5-4 cm. long, about 1-15 cm. thick, with 

 a few filiform root-fibres, dark-brown externally, fracture scarcely 

 farinaceous, yellowish, taste rattier indifferent, followed by a 

 strong tingling sensation, cambium continuous, forming in 

 cross-section a slightly sinuous ring ; mother-tuber much shrunk 

 and wrinkled, with numerous root-fibres, outer sieve-strands, sur- 

 rounded by a mantle of selerenchymatic cells. Innovation bud 

 conic, 4-5 mm. long ; scales ovate, prominently finely nerved, 

 persistent. Stem erect, with or without a slender hypogasous 

 base (up to 3 cm. long) which emits numerous fine roots near 

 the upper end, simple erect, 40-90 cm. high, rather slender, 

 covered with short spreading yellow hairs in the upper part, 

 glabrous below, hollow. Leaves scattered, distant, excepting 

 the lowest 2 or 3 which are usually delayed at the time of the 

 flowering, up to 7, glabrous, or the uppermost very sparingly 

 hairy ; petioles slender, the lower up to 25 cm. long and much 

 dilated' at the base, uppermost very short ; blade orbicular- 

 cordate to reniform in outline with a rather wide sinus (up to 8 

 cm. deep) up to 11 cm. high from the sinus to the tip, up to 20 cm. 

 across, 5-pedati-partite to the very base or almost so in the 

 inner, and to ^-f 6 in the outer incisions, divisions deltoid from 

 a cuneate base on the outermost trapezoid, intermediate division 

 3-lobed to the middle, middle lobe elongate, pinnate-laciniate 

 to inciso-dentate, ultimate segments or teeth acute or very acute, 

 inner lateral divisions similar, but less symmetric, outermost 

 2-lobed or 2-partite, all lacinia?, more or less linear-lanceolate and 

 divaricate, the outermost overlapping and thus closing the sinus ; 

 uppermost blades, sessile or hubsessile, much smaller or dis- 

 sected. Inflorescence a loose raceme 10-25 cm. long, often 

 with slender, erect, few-flowered additional branches from the 

 leafy base ; rhachis slender, densely yellow-pubescent to sub- 

 tomentose ; floral leaves like the preceding leaves, but much 

 reduced, passing upwards into trifid or entire and linear-lanceo- 

 late bracts ; bracteoles at or below the middle, resembling reduced 

 biacts, very often suppressed ; pedicels slender, erect, the lowest 

 at length up to 7 cm. long. Sepals blue, hairy ; uppermost 

 helmet-shaped, helmet serai-orbicular in profile, shortly beaked 



