ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 557 
At present we shall illustrate the order by directing atten¬ 
tion to our wild species of buttercup— 
Genus — Ranunculus, Linn. 
Sepals generally 5 (rarely 3), caducous; petals 5 or more 
(up to 15), with a nectariferous pore at the claw, covered by 
a small scale, or simply with an elevated border on the lower 
side; stamens indefinite, or sometimes definite ; aehenes in 
several rows, forming a globular,, ovoid, or oblong head, and 
apiculate or rostrate by the persistence of the short style or 
its base. 
The British species have all yellow or white flowers.* 
The white forms are aquatic,, and of these Mr. Syme has 
figured 12; whilst of the yellow species 13 are figured, 
Bentham, however, has only figured 2 forms of the water 
crowfoot or ranunculus, viz.: 
R. aquatilis , water R. 
„ hederaceus, ivy-leaved R. 
Of the former he says:—“Many of the forms it assumes 
are striking and have been distinguished as species, but the 
characters, although often to a certain degree permanent, 
appear at other times so inconstant, and even to depend so 
much on the situation the plant grows in, that we can only 
consider them as mere varieties.”f 
The next form this author considers as closely allied to 
the aquatilis, but it seems never to grow otherwise than on 
flat mud banks, and hence its ivy-shaped leaves never take 
on the finely cut segments which more or less characterise 
all the floating forms ; but even in some of these, cordate, ivy¬ 
leaved, or tripartite leaves, will be found intermixed with the 
finer segmental forms. 
The water crowfoot is found in most running streams, 
whilst its varieties inhabit lakes, ponds, and wet places in 
general; it is eaten by cattle, and from the following account 
it may be considered to be not only harmless but whole¬ 
some : 
y The pretty water crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis , common 
on most neglected pools and sluggish streams, with three- 
lobed floating leaves; much divided, almost hair-like sub¬ 
mersed ones, and white flowers with a yellow middle ; is an 
exception to the general character of the genus, being quite 
harmless, at all events to cattle. Along the banks of the 
Hampshire Avon, and other places in the same neighbour- 
* See new edition of * English Botany,’ vol. i, p. 16. 
t ‘ Illustrated Handbook of the British Elora,’ vol. i, p, 11. 
