LXIX. — THE MARSH MARIGOLD. 
Caltha palustris Linne. 
W HEN, in 1773, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu chose the Family Ranunculacea 
to illustrate for the Acad^mie des Sciences his uncle Bernard’s views as to 
the principles of the Natural System of classification, he could not have made a 
better choice. Although they all agree in having numerous hypogynous stamens, 
which would put them in Linn^’s thirteenth Class, Polyandria^ in the absence of 
cohesion or adhesion between their floral organs, and in the presence of albumen in the 
seed, they vary so greatly in the number of their carpels that they would fall into 
various different Linnaean Orders, and so much in habit, in leaf-form, and in floral 
symmetry that no previous botanist would have ventured to group them together. 
When, however, they have been so grouped together, on purely anatomical grounds, 
we find the classification justified by the presence of similar acrid properties not 
only in the herbaceous majority but also in the exceptionally shrubby genus Clematis. 
Though most abundantly represented in the cold and Temperate regions of the 
Northern Hemisphere, the Family is practically cosmopolitan. It comprises nearly 
a thousand species in about thirty genera, and fifteen genera and some forty-eight 
species of these are British. 
Most members of the Family are, as we have said, herbaceous, but perennial. 
They have sympodial rhizomes under ground and the branching above ground is 
also cymose. The leaves are usually scattered, with sheathing bases and deeply 
divided blades. The parts of the flower are arranged spirally, with the usual 
accompaniment of an indefinite increase in their number ; but the perianth and the 
carpels are sometimes whorled and are then made up of fewer leaves. The perianth 
is often petaloid, and the presence of distinctly differentiated calyx and corolla is 
exceptional. The flowers are nearly always perfect, and polysymmetry is the rule, 
though interesting monosymmetric flowers occur in the Monkshoods and Larkspurs. 
Honey is generally present, and the anthers mature before the stigmas and burst 
outwards, or extrorsely^ in succession. There is, however, as we shall see, an 
interesting series of adaptations to insect visits, becoming gradually more complete. 
The character of the carpels, and the number of the ovules they contain, afford 
the best basis for the subdivision of the Family into Tribes. They vary in number 
from one, two, three, or five to an indefinite number, being whorled when few 
and spiral when numerous, and seldom show any cohesion ; but they may contain 
numerous ovules, in which case they split open, when ripe, down one side, each 
forming what is termed a follicle.^ or they may contain only one ovule and then each 
forms an indehiscent achene. 
The Tribe producing follicles, or carpels with many ovules, is known as 
Hellehore<£ ; that producing achenes, as Anemones. The former includes the Marsh 
Marigolds, Globe-flowers, Hellebores, Love-in-a-mist, Winter Aconite, Baneberry, 
