200 



RANUNCULACE^E. 



lent and only a few in. high: herbage glabrous or the dilated petiole 

 sometimes sparingly villous-eiliate; leaves long-petioled except the 

 uppermost; radical round-ovate, toothed or entire, 3 to 6 lines long; 

 cauline elliptic-oblong to linear-lanceolate, entire or slightly denticu- 

 late, 1 to 2 in. long; flowers minute; sepals subscarious, mostly not 

 reflexed; petals commonly 1 to 3, less than 1 line long; achenes 

 numerous in a small globose head, beakless or nearly so. 



Low wet places, rare. Napa Yallev, Bigelou:. 1854; and Sonoma, 

 Bioletti, May 1, 1892 (R. Bioletti Greene); to San Rafael, J. P. 

 Moore, Apr. 14, 1878. 



3. R. Bloomeri Wats. Glabrous somewhat succulent herb, the 

 stems 5 to 16 in. high, from a cluster of thick-fibrous or even slender- 

 fusiform roots; a few leaves simple, but mostly trifoliolate, the radical 

 long (1 ft. or less) -petioled; leaflets roundish, dentate with coarse 

 round teeth, usually petiolulate, sparsely incised or 3-lobed; flowers 

 few and large, \\ in. in diameter or less; petals 5, emarginate at apex, 

 the greenish area at base conspicuous and the gland large; achenes 

 turgid, 1£ lines long, tipped with a slender subulate beak. 



Common in low fields near the coast (not in the inner Coast 

 Ranges): San Mateo Co.; West Berkeley; Marin Co.; Napa Valley: 

 Long Valley, Mendocino Co., Bolander. Feb. -Mar. First collected 

 by H. G. Bloomer, pioneer member of the California Academy of 

 Sciences and amateur student of the local botany. 



4. R, orthorhyncus Hook. var. maximus. Diffuse, the stem- 

 very stout, 1£ to 3£ ft. long, from a cluster of slender fusiform roots;' 

 leaves ternately or biternately divided, the divisions broad, sharply 

 or laciniately cleft; radical leaves biternately compound, at least the 

 primary divisions stalked, on petioles 6 to 22 in. long; petals 5 to 8, 

 oblong-ovate or orbicular, 8 or 9 lines long: achenes with long 

 straight slender style as long as the body. — (R. maximus Greene.) 



Swampy places: first known from East Berkeley, where it is now 

 extinct; but seldom seen in the typical form; specimens from Marin 

 Co. are referred here. 



5. R. canus Benth var. hesperoxys. Young herbage soft- 

 villous or conspicuously canescent on the under surface of the leaves; 

 stems H to 2 ft. high; leaves nearly all in a radical tuft, long- 

 petioled. deeply parted and subdivided into many lanceolate acute 

 segments; achenes large, flat, 3 lines long, including the short trian- 

 gular-subulate beak which is slightly curved at the tip. — (R. hesper- 

 oxys Greene.) 



Not common or at least little collected: Antioch, Dan/, some of the 

 specimens having 8 petals; low hills near Vacaville, Jepsov; perhaps 

 upper Napa Valley, Jepson, but not at all villous, the leaf-segments 

 very broad and merely cleft, the petals uniformly 5 and the achenes 

 typical. Clearly passing into the next. The type is silky-lanate 

 throughout and was collected by Hartweo- in the fields of Butte Co. 

 in 1847. 



C>. R. Californicus Benth. Common Bi'TTKRcriv Herbage 



