THE yOUNG 



different from the common earth-nut 

 (Bunium flcxuosuvi), which is invariably 

 found at a depth of four or six inches and 

 can only be extracted by deep digging. The 

 bulbous crowfoot prefers rather dry sandy 

 or loamy banks, commons, or old pastures. 

 It does not so soon take possession of culti- 

 vated fields and meadows as the other two, 

 indeed, it is a strong advocate of " fixity of 

 tenure," and does not like to be disturbed 

 in possession. It is a very neat, compact, 

 little plant, from six inches to a foot high, 

 repeatedly branched, each branch termina- 

 ting in a single flower. It may be recognised 

 when growing by the sepals being curiously 

 reflexed or rolled back from the corolla and 

 the furrowed flower stalks. It is the earli- 

 est flower of the three, commencing to bloom 

 in April, attaining its greatest profusion in 

 May and June, but withering away before 

 the fierce heats of summer. Growing as it 

 often does in dry sandy places, the perma- 

 nent bulbous root is a beautiful provision 

 for resisting the long continued droughts to 

 which it must be subject, and for retaining 

 a store of nourishment for its future susten- 

 ance. Whether or not it may be as some 

 maintain only a state of the upright crow- 

 foot acquired by growing under different 

 conditions, no one can deny its present 

 suitability to its environment, and the per- 

 manency of its character seems now fully 

 established. If R. bulbosus be regarded as 

 the long established settler, then R. rc^cns 

 may be looked on as the pioneer of the 

 crowfoots. It is the first to take hold of 

 waste ground or fallow fields. Wherever 

 the soil has been broken up and left uncared 

 for a year, there the creeping crowfoot is 

 sure to obtain a footing. It revels in a 

 freshly made railway embankment or rub- 

 bish heap, and its peculiar mode of growth 

 eminently fits it for covering the greatest 

 amount of space in the least possible lime. 

 It throws out in all directions numerous 

 slender creeping stems, similar to the run- 



NATURALIST. 279 



ners of the strawberry, every joint producing 

 roots, and being able to maintain existence 

 as an independent plant. Having once 

 effected a lodgment, the more unpromising 

 and sterile the site, the faster it hurries 

 along in search of richer soil. I have seen 

 a plant on a dry cindcry railway bank pro- 

 duce numerous stems twelve feet long in a 

 single season : these were being pushed 

 rapidly along over a paved portion to find, 

 if possible, a resting place in the adjoining 

 ground. It also loves to grow in the damp 

 port ons of ill-drained fields and in open 

 ditches, where it often attains a luxuriant 

 richness of foliage and flower far excelling 

 its congeners. Its leaves are larger, glossier, 

 and not so much divided as the other two 

 species, the rooting stems forming an en- 

 tangled, inextricable mass, above which the 

 peduncles rise, each bearing a large, brilli- 

 ant, orange yellow flower. The inner side 

 of the petals all seem as if varnished with 

 shining burnished gold, and at the base of 

 each is a small scale easily observable when 

 the petal is detached. These are nectaries * 

 which contain the nectar, the saccharine 

 fluid so attractive to insects. In some mem- 

 bers of the Ranujiculacea, as the Monkshood, 

 Larkspur, Hellebore and Columbine, they 

 are very curiously developed, although with 

 beekeepers they bear an evil repute as 

 honey bearers. The flowers of buttercups 

 have a marked tendency to become double ; 

 and a double-flowered variety, common in 

 old-fashioned gardens, introduced from 

 across the channel, is known as " fair maids 

 of France," or "bachelors' buttons," which 

 is also a local name for the buttercup. The 

 popular names of king cup and gold cup 

 have the same meaning, being derived or 

 corrupted from the old English "cop," a 

 head or button, and is given in allusion to 

 the resemblance of the unexpanded flower- 

 buds to the gilt or golden studs and buttons 

 so much affected by the bachelor swells of 

 bygone days. 



