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BOTANICAL. INDEX 
Order— Ranuneulacece. Linnanis. Pliny . 
Type — R. Acris , and bulbous. Limueus. 
Etymology' — From Rana, (Greek) a frog. 
[|Untl> |)apcr.] 
ifejMONG the first plants enumerated and described in modern botany are those 
Sr" II corn P r * se( ^ hi the (first) 'natural order, Ranuneulacece, (Linnaeus, Order 13,) 
YJlB of which Ranunculus Arris and bulbous, may be considered as the types. It is 
one of the most widely distributed as well as abundant in genera and species, 
being found in more or less abundance from the Equator to the shores of the 
Arctic Ocean and Greenland in the north, to an almost equal distance south. 
The genus Ranunculus alone contains over 200 described species, anti of the 30 or 40 
other genera in this order, some contain nearly as many more. As a rule they are 
found in cool, moist or partly shaded places, while a few species are decidedly 
aquatic, and will form the subject we propose to treat of especially in this paper. 
According to Sir Joseph Paxton there are a dozen aquatic species in Great Britain, 
one in Hungary, two in Europe, one in Siberia, one in New Zealand, and four in 
North America, that are thoroughly aquatic, while nearly as many more inhabit 
low or wet grounds or ditches. As a rule the flowers are small, being no more than 
one inch in diameter, while the prevailing color of the whole genus is yellow or 
white flowers, an exception, however, being in R. apiifolins, from Bonaria, with 
whitish-red flowers, and R. asiaticus variety sanguineus, from Syria, with scarlet 
flowers. 
The best known of all the foreign aquatic varieties is R. acquitilis, Linn., Fig. 
201, originally from Great Britain, but now very generally distributed over the whole 
civilized world. In this species, which is often from one to two feet long, the lower 
portion of the stalk and a few leaves are usually submerged, while a small portion of 
the growing end, with leaves, together with the flowers, are above the surface of the 
water. The leaves that vegetate in the water are divided into narrow or linear lines, 
so narrow indeed that they seem to be leaves reduced to their nerves or skeletonized, 
while those leaves that grow in the aii are entire and disc-like in form and more or 
less notched. All the leaves are circular in outline, or nearly so, and do not collapse 
so completely as the American form R. multifidus does, upon being removed from the 
water. The flowers are white, from one and one-half to two inches in diameter, and 
are borne singly on long and remote stalks from the axils of the leaves during July 
and August. On the inner surface, and at the base of the petals, is a single, naked, 
yellow hony pit. 
Our American species, R. multifidus, Pursch., Fig. 202, is perhaps the best one to 
select as a type for the aquatic section of the genus, of any one we can find. Here 
