RANUNCULUS ACRIS. UPRIGHT MEADOW CROWFOOT. 
Class XIII. POLYANDRIA.— Order VII. POLYGYNIA. 
Natural Order, RANUNCULACEAL THE CROW-FOOT TRIBE. 
Fig. (a) represents a single petal detached to show the nectary; (b) a stamen with its anther. 
Among the numerous species of vegetables, natives of Britain, few are more familiarly known than those 
of the Ranunculi. They are herbaceous plants, all or at least most of them, possessing acrid qualities, and 
generally affecting cold or temperate climates. Sixty one species are enumerated by Willdenow in the 14th 
edition of Systema Vegetabilium, but the number has of late been considerably augmented, and now nearly 
two hundred are known. Fifteen are natives of our island ; and of these the two species figured, and the 
bulbosus are the most common, occupying a considerable space in rich pastures, and propagating themselves 
with great facility. Early in the spring, and during the greater part of the summer, the flowers occur 
everywhere; hence the farmer and the horticulturist are continually employed in their destruction, for they 
contribute little or nothing to the support of man and the larger quadrupeds. 
The root of the Ranunculus acris, is perennial and somewhat bulbous, with several long simple fibres. 
The stem is two feet high, erect, round, hollow, leafy, beset with minute hairs, branched towards the top, 
and many-flowered. The radical leaves are oblong, upright, hairy, footstalks, in three or five deep lobes, 
which are variously subdivided and toothed. The leaves on the stem are of the same structure; divided 
into fewer and narrower segments; the uppermost are much smaller, and cut into three linear entire lobes, 
or sometimes entirely simple and linear. The stalk and branches are terminated by bright yellow flowers, 
one or two together on round even stalks, covered with close hairs, and not furrowed. The calyx is pale 
greenish-yellow, or coloured like the corolla, and formed of five ovate, concave, spreading deciduous leaves, 
which are clothed with a downy pubescence and tipped at the apex with a dark brown spot. Within the 
calyx are five obtuse petals, polished on their inner surface, and furnished at the base with the nectary, 
which is a small pore, covered by a scale. The filaments are numerous, (from forty-eight to ninety-three,) 
not half the length of the petals, with oblong heart-shaped stigmas. In the centre of the corolla are many 
germens, collected into a head, and each furnished with a small reflected stigma. The akenia are lenticular, 
smooth, with a small, slightly curved point. 
Linnaeus gave this species the name “Acris/’ on account of its being supposed to be acrid and poisonous 
in an eminent degree. Mr. Curtis says, “that even pulling up the plant, and carrying it some little dis- 
tance, has produced a considerable inflammation in the palm of the hand ; that cattle in general will not eat 
it, but that sometimes, when they are turned in a hungry state into a new field of grass, or have but a small 
spot to range in, they will feed on it, whereby their mouths become sore and blistered. According to Lin- 
naeus, sheep and goats eat it; but kine, horses, and swine refuse it. When made into hay it loses its acrid 
quality ; but then it seems to be too stalky and hard to afford much nourishment ; if it be of use, it must 
be to correct, by its warmth, the insipidity of the grasses.” It has been supposed to act as a condiment, 
and hence to be serviceable when taken in moderate quantities along with other more bland and nutritious 
herbs. 
RANUNCULUS FLAMMULA. 
LESSER SPEAR-WORT CROWFOOT. 
This species of Ranunculus, which is commonly called in English the stnall or lesser Spear-wort, grows 
plentifully throughout Europe, in marshy places, and especially in the wet and more boggy parts of heaths 
and commons, where it flowers during most part of the summer. 
The root is perennial, consisting of several long simple fibres, issuing from the lower joints of the stem. 
The stem is a foot high or more, often reclining partly, or entirely decumbent at the base ; branched, leafv, 
round, hollow, smooth, and frequently tinged with purple. The whole plant is generally smooth, except a 
variety the leaves of which are said to be hairy at the edges, and the upper part of the stem is sometimes a 
little downy. The radical leaves are ovate-lanceolate, pointed at each end, standing on long foot-stalks, which 
are hollow on one side and flattened; those on the stalk lanceolate, alternate, standing on shorter foot-stalks, 
which are dilated and sheathing at the base; the uppermost, and those next the flowers, linear; all of them 
smooth, sometimes perfectly entire or more or less toothed. The flowers are terminal as well as opposite 
