The fmall Spear-Wort is one of thofe plants which is fubjeGt to great variation; Dopon aus has obferved, that 
in Holland, where it grows luxuriantly, it acquires the height of two cubits ; in the cold barren foils of moun- 
tamous countries it is altogether as diminutive ; in proportion to its ftrength, appears to be the uprightnefs of 
its growth; on the ftony margins of lakes, Hatter obferved it to be {mall and creeping, with linear leaves; 
as it receded from fuch fituations, it became taller, and finally affümed its ufual appearance : 1n this fmall and 
creeping ftate authors have confidered it asa fpecies; as fuch Linnzus has adopted it under the name of 
rebtans, and Mr. Licutroor figured it on the frontifpiece to the fecond volume of the Flora Scotica; but 
when the one defcribed, and the other figured it as a fpecies, they expreffed their doubts of its being fuch : 
ScoroLi alfo is of opinion that the reprans is no other than a variety, arifing from foil and fituation. 1 
The leaves are ufually toothed, efpecially the upper ones; fometimes they may be found entire, and fome- 
times more deeply indented, or ferrated on their edges; the variety in this latter ftate the old authors defcribe, 
and figure as a fpecies. 
Inftin& rarely fails in dire€ting graminivorous animals to reje& fuch herbs as would prove injurious to them, 
hence we feldom find this and the other acrid fpecies of Crow-Foot eaten by cattle, but we know that under 
certain circumftances they will fometimes err, and become poifoned or difeafed: Gzrarop fays, * this plant is 
called Banewort by fome, bicaufe it is dangerous and deadly for fheepe, and that if they feede of the fame, it 
inflameth their livers, fretteth and bliftereth their guts, and entrailes :” Dopon us, from whom GERARD probably 
borrows this account, reports the fame, and that the plant takes its name in the Netherlands, from its pernicious 
effets on this harmlefs and ufeful race: HaLLer quotes an author (Le Noble laéi p. 12.) who fays, that the 
livers of. horfes which had fed on this Ranunculus became rotten, and full of little bladders of water, as well as 
{mall animals refembling flounders; if the rot in fheep be occafioned by their feeding on any particular plant. 
and authors be not miftaken in what they fay of this, none appears more likely to occafion 1t than the prefent 
one. Kine* are faid to feed on it without injury. 
Acrid as this Ranunculus is, and injurious as it may be to the larger animals, we obferved on theoth of laft July, 
1791, {mall black larve feeding on its flower buds and ftamina, in thofe little kind of dells on Barnes-Common, 
where the water had been dried up, and where grew Ca/Irricbe, Peplis, Gc. we fufpeét they were the larve of 
fome coleopterous infect ; and on the under fide of a leaf of another plant of the fame fpecies, we difcovered 
a clufter of eggs, fixty-four in number, depofited moft probably by fome fpecies of moth; the leaves of this 
and of every other fpecies of Ranunculus growing wild, or in our gardens, are yearly disfigured, and in fome 
feafons deflroyed by a very minute intercutaneous larva or maggot, producing a {mall fly, which we have 
named Mu/ca ranunculi, and of whofe hiftory it is our intention to give an account elfewhere; we have repre- 
fented one of the leaves on the plant as it appears marked by this infect. 
Mr. Licurroor informs us, that the Ranunculus Flammula is uled in many parts of the highlands to raife 
blifters ; for this purpofe, in the ifland of Jura, and other parts on the coaft, the leaves are well bruifed in a 
mortar, and applied in one or more limpet fhells to the parts where the blifters are to be raifed. 
* Boves autem licet magnam comedunt hujus copiam ab hac affici non obfervavi. Brugm. 
