14 



THE EANUNCULUS FAMILY. 



Fig. 14. 



and a single flower, with 3 sepals and 8 

 or 9 oblong petals, of a bright glossy 

 yellow. Carpels rather large, in a glo- 

 bular head. 



In fields, pastures, and waste places, 

 a very common weed throughout Europe 

 and western Asia. Abundant in Britain, 

 except perhaps the west Highlands of 

 Scotland. Fl. spring, one of the earliest 

 that appears. It varies occasionally with 

 a slightly branched creeping stem of 8 

 or 9 inches or even more. 



Celery-leaved Ranunculus. Ranunculus sceleratus, Lirm. 

 (Kg. 15.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 681.) 



/fy An erect, much branched annual, 

 usually under a foot, but sometimes near 

 two feet high, glabrous or nearly so. 

 Stem thick and hollow. Lower leaves 

 ^ stalked, divided into three or more ob- 

 tusely toothed or lobed segments, the 

 upper ones sessile, with three narrow 

 segments. Elowers small and numerous, 

 the petals pale yellow, scarcely longer 

 than the calyx, and without any scale 

 over the hollow spot at their base. Car- 

 pels very small and numerous, in a dense 

 head, which becomes oblong as the fruit 

 m S- !5. ripens. 



On the sides of pools and wet ditches, over nearly the whole of Eu- 

 rope and Russian and central Asia, and now spread into North America. 

 Scattered pretty frequently through the chief part of Britain. Fl. 

 summer. 



8. Wood Banunculus. Ranunculus auricomus, Linn. 

 (Fig. 16.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 624. Goldiloeks.) 

 A perennial, with the large bright yellow flowers of the meadow JR., 

 but not so tall, more glabrous,having only a few appressed hairs, es- 

 pecially in the upper parts, and the lower leaves less cut and more ob- 

 tuse. Stem seldom above a foot high, erect and branched. Eadical 



