398 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
according to Dr. Pulteney (Linn. Trans., v. p. 19), are not only 
innocuous, but nutritive to cattle, the cottagers on the banks of the 
Avon gathering them into boats, from which their cows eat them 
with avidity. Many species of this tribe possess blistering proper- 
ties, that is to say, they stick to the skin and produce an irritation 
which goes far towards the destruction of the epidermis, and the 
formation of a sore: the species used for these purposes are the 
Ranunculus fammula (Lesser Spearwort) ; 2. lingua (Great Spear- 
_ wort); 2. repens (Creeping Crowfoot, or Golden Crowfoot). When 
the juice of these flowers is distilled, the liquid drawn from 
it contains a yery acrid principle. Animals will not touch the 
Ranunculi when fresh, but when dried and used as hay its taste is 
lost. The Sweet or Wood Crowfoot, R. auricomus, or Goldilocks, 
differs remarkably from most of the tribe; it grows in tufts with 
numerous stems, very slightly branching above, its habitat, woods, 
and moist shady places, and it is without the acridity so common to 
the tribe. The Buttercup, King-cup, or Meadow Crowfoot (2. en- 
auris), in spite of its known acridity, has been a favourite with the 
poets. One sings of 
“The kingeup of gold brimming over with dew, 
To be kissed by a lip just as fresh as its own.” 
One variety of this species having become double, was 4 
favourite in old gardens, and probably is still, under the name of 
Bachelors’ Buttons. 
The Creeping Crowfoot (R. repens) is the Cuckoo-bud of 
Shakespeare. 
“ When daisies pied and violets blue, 
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, 
Do paint the meadows with delight.” 
Amongst the Ranunculi we must also mention the Clematis, 
Anemones, Hepticas, and Adonis. — 
The Clematis (Traveller’s Joy, and several other popular names) 
has a calyx with four petaloidal divisions, and without a corolla. 
The stamens and pistils are numerous as in the Ranunculus ; their i 
pistils are unilocular ; after efflorescence they become achenes, with 
seeds reversed, and surmounted by a sort of plumose tail, resulting 
