278 



THE YOUNG NATUEA.LIST. 



a meadow field in summer time, has become 

 familiar with its gold cup, and learned to 

 lisp its name. So numerous do they become 

 in old pastures, that they overshadow every 

 thing else, and for a -few weeks in May or 

 June the ground seems carpetted with a 

 cloth of gold, at a little distance not a green 

 blade being visible. It is a widespread 

 popular fancy that the golden buttercup 

 gives the rich yellow colour to summer 

 butter, but, like too many current beliefs, 

 the facts are against it, for the cows in- 

 variably avoid browsing on the buttercups as 

 much as possible; and, no wonder, for all 

 the family are very biting, acrid, and pun- 

 gent in their qualities, scarcely one of them 

 being suitable for animal food, several are 

 virulent poisons, as the Monkshood {A coni- 

 tum napelfv^^^) The leaves of one species of 

 Water Creiwfoot {R. sceleraUis), is used in 

 rustic herbal practice to produce blisters, or 

 as a counter irritant in toothache ; and even 

 carrying a handful of R. acris has been 

 known to inflame and excoriate the hands. 

 The genus Ranunculus (from Rana, a frog, 

 because many of the species love to grow in 

 marshes where frogs abound), is very widely 

 distributed, and varied in its general 

 appearance and places of growth. Some 

 grow in deep water with floating stems and 

 much divided leaves, others live in shallow 

 stagnant pools, many more in marshes and 

 by water-courses, several in cultivated 

 fields, two or three in woods, and the true 

 buttercups in meadows and pastures. 

 In almost all the natural arrangements of 

 British plants, this order holds the place of 

 honour in the Flora. The flowers being 

 botanically perfect they are often used as a 

 typical illustration, to show beginners the 

 various parts of which a flower consists. 

 Thus in a buttercup we have the four 

 whorls of a flower, the calyx, corolla, 

 stamens, and pistil distinctly represented ; 

 and not only are the whorls separate, but 

 the individual parts of each, the sepals, 



petals, stamens, and carpels, are distinct 

 and independent of each other. So variable 

 are the British Ranunculi, especially those 

 which grow in water, that the number of 

 species varies from twelve to thirty or more, 

 according to the whims and fancies of indi- 

 vidual botanists, no two of them attaching 

 the same value to the various minute 

 characters. We shall not attempt to discuss 

 these debateable points, but endeavour to 

 elucidate the distinguishing features of the 

 three common meadow crowfoots, which are 

 alone recognised as buttercups, viz : — Ran- 

 unculus acris, the upright meadow crowfoot ; 

 R. repens, the creeping crowfoot ; and R 

 hulbosus, the bulbous crowfoot. All these 

 three are about equally common, they may 

 often be found growing together, and they 

 have so strong a family likeness that it 

 requires a slight smattering of botanical 

 knowledge to be able to distinguish them. 

 These three are the only crowfoots which 

 grow in meadows and pastures, and they all 

 have the root leaves much less divided than 

 the stem leaves, which are cut up into long, 

 narrow segments, bearing a fancied resem- 

 blance to a bird's claw, whence the common 

 name of crowfoot. R. acris so called from 

 the sharp biting nature of its juices, is best 

 distinguished by its rigid erect habit, it is 

 by far the tallest of the three, rising to a 

 height of eighteen inches or two feet. In 

 Autumn, it is often very conspicuous in the 

 closely-cropt pastures, standing up bare, 

 gaunt, and spectre-like, with here and there 

 a solitary diminutive flower crowning the 

 leafless branches, but usually functionally 

 abortive in the cold cheerless sunless days 

 of Autumn. R, bulbosus is unmistakeable 

 when pulled out of the ground, because of 

 the bulbous root from whence it takes its 

 name, this usually grows to about the size 

 of a hazel nut, with white fibrous roots 

 attached, it is generally found just under 

 the surface of the soil so that it is very 

 easily dug up, being in this respect very 



