4 THE RANUNCULUS FAMILY. 
three or four times divided, with very numerous small leaflets roundish 
or broadly wedge-shaped, trifid and toothed. Flowers usually of a pale 
greenish-yellow, with a pink tinge on the sepals. Stamens numerous, 
with long narrow anthers. Carpels from 3 to 5 or 6, very acute and 
strongly furrowed. 
In dry situations, chiefly in limestone countries, throughout Europe 
and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Scattered over Britain 
and Ireland, but not common. J. summer. Several varieties have 
been described as species, and three or four of these are British, but 
their characters are vague and uncertain. 
[The two most marked forms are minus proper, which is 6 to 18 in. 
high, often glaucous and glandular, with the stem naked below ; and 
7’. majus, Sm., with a stem 2 to 4 feet high, more leafy below, and 
larger leaflets. The latter is most common in the north. ] 
3. T. flavum, Linn. (fig. 4). Yellow 7, Meadow Rue.—The largest 
British species, being generally 2 to 8 feet high, and deeper green than 
the last. Stem stout, furrowed. Leaves large, petiole twice or thrice 
divided, the leaflets much fewer than in 7’. minus, but larger, often an 
inch long, obovate or wedge-shaped at the base. Panicle compact, 
rather corymbose. Pedicels short and erect even before the flower 
expands. Flowers, especially the stamens, decidedly yellow. 
In moist meadows, and along ditches, in Europe and North Asia, 
scarcely extending so far north as 7. minus. Found in England, Ireland, 
and southern Scotland, but not verycommon. /. summer. Here, again, 
some botanists distinguish several species by size, colour, and pubescence, 
and according as the rootstock is more or less creeping, or whether sessile 
leaflets resembling stipules are or not formed at the base of the branches 
of the petiole. 
II]. ANEMONE. ANEMONE. 
Rootstock perennial. Leaves radical. Flower-stem naked, excepting 
an involucre of three leaves usually at a considerable distance from the 
flowers. Sepals 5 or more, frequently 6, coloured and petal-like, longer 
than the stamens. Nopetals. Stamensnumerous. Carpels numerous, 
1-seeded, pointed or ending in a long feathery awn. 
A large genus, found in almost all temperate regions of the globe, 
chiefly characterised by the 3 leaves placed in a whorl, from half- 
way up the flowering stem to very near the flowers. When much 
divided, these leaves may appear more numerous, but they always form 
a single whorl, and are always united at the base into three. 
Flowers purple, silky outside. Carpels ending in feathery awns 1. A. Pulsatilla. 
Flowers white or pink, glabrous. Carpels ending in a point . 2. A. nemorosa. : 
Several Continental species are cultivated in our gardens, especially 
A. pratensis, and the Hepatica (A. Hepatica), in which the involucre is so 
close to the flower as to resemble a calyx. Two South European species, 
the blue-flowered A. apennina and the yellow-flowered A. ranunculordes, 
both with the habit and carpels of A. nemorosa, have been established in 
plantations, and are hence included in some British Floras. 
1. A. Pulsatilla, Linn. (fig. 5). Pasque-fower.—Rootstock thick 
and woody. Radical leaves on long stalks, covered when young with 
silky hairs, and two or three times ‘divided into long linear segments. 
