Ranunculus. | I, RANUNCULACEZ. 7 
Thickened: base of the stem bulb-like. Leaves 
radical. Carpels numerous in an sures or 
cylindrical head . ; ; ke De Che ‘aphiyllos, 
Calyx closely reflected on the peduncle. 
Rootstock or thickened base of the stem a camcneai 
Carpels perfectly smooth . 12. R. bulbosus. 
Annual. Carpels marked with a ‘few "tubercles 
within the margin ; ; , 13. BR. hirsutis. 
Carpels covered with tubercles or pr ickles. Annuals. 
Leaves hairy, segments broad. arDes tuberculate. 
Stems weak : ‘ : ; . 14. R. parviflorus. 
Leaves glabrous, segments narrow. | Carpels very 
prickly. Plant erect : : : : . 15. Re arvensis. 
The showy double Ranunculus of our gardens belongs to a Levant 
species (f. asiaticus). Double-flowered varieties of several others, 
especially of our common yellow Buttercups, and of the white-flowered 
Continental 2. aconitifolius, are known as Bachelor’s Buttons. 
1. R. aquatilis, Linn. (fig. 9). Water R.—A most variable species, 
but easily known by its stem either floating in water, or creeping 
along mud, by its white flowers, and very small ovoid carpels marked 
with transverse wrinkles. It is glabrous in all its parts excepting 
sometimes the carpels and their receptacle. The lower leaves and 
sometimes all, if submerged, are divided into numerous very fine 
linear segments, whilst those which float are rounded and more or less 
cut into 3 or 6 wedge-shaped, obovate, or rounded lobes. Flower- 
stalks axillary and 1-flowered. Petals 5 or sometimes more, without 
any scale over the spot at their base. 
In ponds, streams, and fresh and brackish ditches throughout all 
temperate regions, Abundant in Britain, Fl. the whole season. Many 
of the forms it assumes are striking, and have been distinguished as 
species, but the characters, although often to a certain degree per- 
manent, are at times so inconstant, and so depend on the situation the 
plant grows in, that I can only consider them as varieties. Twelve of 
them are admitted by Babington as species, of which the following 
are the most prominent. 
a. fluitans (RK. fluitans, Lam.). All the leaves submerged and finely 
cut, the segments long and parallel. Flowers large, on long stalks.— 
Chiefly in running streams. 
b. circinatus (2. circinatus, Sibth.). All the leaves submerged and 
finely cut, but with shorter segments spreading in a perfect circle. 
Flowers large.—Chiefly in deep still waters. 
c. vulgaris. Lower leaves submerged and finely cut; upper leaves 
floating, rounded and broadly lobed. Flowers very variable in size.— 
The commonest state of the plant. 
2. R. hederaceus, Linn. (fig. 10). vy R.—Very closely aliied to 
R. aquatilis, and probably a variety of that species ; but as in our own 
country, at least, it is very constant, I here admit it in deference to 
the opinion of others, It never appears to produce the finely cut 
leaves of #&. aquatiis, but, creeping on mud or floating in shallow 
water, it roots at every joint, bearing angular and broadly lobed leaves 
like the upper ones of R&. aquatilis ; the flowers are usually very small, 
the petals scarcely exceeding the sepals, and the carpels and receptacles 
are quite glabrous. 
Chiefly in wet ditches in western and northern Europe, common in 
