BUTTERCUP FAMILY II 



* Petals white, with a yellow claw. 



i. R. aqu&tilis (Water Crowfoot). — This was Linnaeus' 

 collective name for a very puzzling group of plants, which botanists 

 now consider as at least nine or ten distinct species. They are 

 all water-plants with submerged leaves deeply cleft into hair-like 

 segments, and broad membranous stipules. The chief forms 

 are : R. circindtus, with large flowers, no floating leaves, and the 

 segments of the submerged ones rigid and spreading in one 

 plane; R. fluitans, with much longer leaf-segments all lying 

 parallel, leaves often a foot long, but flower-stalks shorter ; R. 

 pseudo-fluitans, with similar but shorter leaves and much longer 

 peduncles ; R. trichophyllus with small flowers, and the leaf- 

 segments rigid and spreading, but not in one plane ; R. Drouetu, 

 in which the leaf-segments collapse into a tassel when taken from 

 the water ; R. l-eterophyllus, with large flowers on stalks as long as 

 the leaves, submerged leaves collapsing into a tassel, and 3-lobed 

 floating leaves ; R. peltdtus, in which the segments of the sub- 

 merged leaves spread out when taken from the water ; R. 

 Baudotii, with stouter flower-stalks and floating leaves deeply 

 divided into wedge-shaped segments ; and R. intermedins, with 

 small pinkish flowers on short slender stalks, and seldom any sub- 

 merged leaves. The forms without floating leaves are the " long 

 mosses in the stream " of Tennyson. Those with floating leaves 

 occur in standing water. — Fl. May — September. 



2. R. Lenormdndi (Mud Crowfoot). — Floating or creeping on 

 mud ; leaves all reniform, crenate ; flowers \ in. across. — Fl. 

 June — August. 



3. R. hederdceus (Ivy-leaved Crowfoot). — Leaves all reniform, 

 5-lobed, often with a black spot on them ; flowers very small ; 



petals scarcely longer than the calyx. — Growing in water or on 

 mud. — Fl. May — September. 



** Petals yellow. Terrestrial. 



4. R. scelerdtus (Celery-leaved Crowfoot). — Stem 1 — 2 feet 

 high, hollow, with abundant very acrid juice ; leaves glabrous, 

 glossy, cut into three oblong lobes ; floivers very small, pale 

 yellow ; fruit an oblong etserio. — Growing in watery places. — Fl. 

 May — September. Annual. 



5. R. F/dmmula (Lesser Spearwort). — Stem creeping at the 

 base, 4—18 in. high; leaves petiolate, ovate, or lanceolate, hairy 4 

 or glabrous ; flowers \ — § in. across. Named from its causing 

 inflammation or redness of the skin. — Growing in wet places. — 

 Fl. June — August. Perennial. 



