BOTAXICA1 INDEX 
711 
we have a hardy, native perennial aquatic plant, growing in shallow, slow-running 
water or small lakes of fresh water, with a bundle of long fibrous rootlets, center^ 
ing in a crown, from which spring usually one (sometimes more) slender branching 
procumbently floating stems, from 10 to 20 inches long, with numerous alternate, 
clasping or sheathing petioled leaves, the petioles (stipules) broadly dilated at the 
base, and enclosing the node or joint, from which spring the branches. These 
branches and stems seldom rise above the surface of the water but always appear 
floating, and are terminated by a single yellow flower in May, June and July. The 
leaves are reniform (kidney-shaped) in outline, but are repeatedly divided up into 
long narrow, three-forked, filiform divisions and present a feathery appearance in 
the water, but collapsing into a tuft immediately upon being drawn out of water. 
In a copy of Comstock's Illustrated Botany before me is a paragraph on the flower 
of Ranunculus, which tells the story so plainly that we copy it entire: “ Let the 
reader take an individual of this species, while in blossom, and examine with us the 
parts of the flower. The petals are five, of a brilliant yellow, and underneath them 
are the sepals of the calyx, also five in number, like small hairy leaves. Upon sep- 
arating one of the petals, near its base, on the inside, will be seen a little nectarifer- 
ous pore or sac, from which exudes honey, and which is covered and protected by a 
small scale. Within the corolla are the stamens, which are, with the sepals and 
petals, separately inserted into the receptacle. In the centre of the flower, are a 
Fig. 201. Ranunculus AqualiKs. 
number of little green grains, collected together, and seated on an elevation of the 
receptacle. When examined by a magnifying glass, they are found to be rounded 
at the bottom, and contracted into a short, curved horn at the top Each of these 
grains is a single carpel, the horn-like top is the style, and the tip of this, which is 
somewhat broader, and more shining, is the stigma. Each carpel contains a single 
ovule, or young seed. When young, the ovule occupies but a small part of The 
cavity of the carpel, but afterwards fills it entirely. After the calyx, corolla and 
stamens have fallen oft, the cluster of carpels remains, and ripens into the fruit 
Their form is not changed, but increase in size, and become dry, hard, and brown.' 
In this state they are ordinarily called seeds, but in reality as we have seen they are 
only the seed vessels, each containing a single seed. If one of these be cut throuo-h 
with a sharp kuife, the inside will present only a mass of white flesh, which is the 
albumen; unless the division has been made exactly through the centre, from top to 
bottom, when a very minute oval body will be seen near the base. This can be, taken 
out by the point of a needle, and when submitted to the microscope, proves to be the 
embryo or the part which grows when the seed germinates, and is composed of the 
phimule, or rudiment of the stem, the radicle, or part which forms a root, and the 
cotyledons, which are the beginnings of leaves.” 
It is often noticed that the small and narrow sections of the leaves are narrower 
