16 



THE EANUNCULUS FAMILY. 



rapidly rooting and forming fresh plants 

 at every node, by the flowering stems 

 seldom above a foot high and less 

 branched, by the hairs generally lon- 

 ger and looser, and by the leaves di- 

 vided into three stalked segments, each 

 one lobed and toothed, but the central 

 one projecting considerably beyond the 

 others, so as to give the whole leaf an 

 ovate form, not the rounded one of the 

 meadoio JR. 



S* 8 * In pastures, cultivated and waste 



places throughout Europe, Russian Asia, and a portion of North Ame- 

 rica. In Britain almost as abundant as the meadow JR., and a very 

 troublesome weed in rich soils. Fl. all summer, and often till late in 

 autumn. 



11. Bulbous Ranunculus. Banunculus bulbosus, Linn. 

 (Fig. 19.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 515.) 



A perennial, much smaller and usually 

 more hairy than the meadow B., of which 

 it has the bright yellow petals. Stem 

 seldom above a foot high, and usually 

 thickened at the base into a kind of bulb. 

 Leaves more like those of the creeping 

 B. t but smaller, divided into three seg- 

 ments more or less cut, but broader than 

 in the meadoio B. It is moreover dis- 

 tinguished from all but the hairy B. by 

 the sepals, which, as soon as the flower 

 expands, are closely reflexed on the pe- 

 duncle. Carpels glabrous and smooth. 

 In meadows, pastures, and waste places over the greater part of 

 Europe, but disappearing in the north-east, scarcely penetrating into 

 western Asia, but naturalized in North America. Abundant in Eng- 

 land, Ireland, and southern Scotland, rare, if really wild, in the north. 

 Fl. early summer. 



Fig. 19. 



11. Hairy Banunculus. Banunculus philonotis, Ehrh.(Eig. 20.) 

 (B. hirsutus, Eng. Bot, t. 1504.) 

 An erect annual, much branched from the base, six inches to near a 

 foot high, with the foliage and reflexed calyx of the bulbous B., but the 



