2d BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
and let us hope that the day is not far distant when it shall 
occupy its true position in connection with those other 
branches of science which are already deemed essential to 
the proper education of the members of our profession. 
The next natural order of plants that will be brought 
under notice is one which, like the preceding, contains many 
plants of great interest, viz., the natural order Ranunculaceae, 
or Crowfoots. Like the Solanaceous tribe, it belongs to the 
class of Exogens, but, unlike it, to the sub-class Thalima- 
florae (flowers furnished with both a calyx and corolla, the 
latter consisting of distinct petals; stamens always hypo- 
gynous, or united to the sides of the ovary). The following 
will be found a brief description of the botanical characters 
of the order:— 
“ Ranunculacece, Croivfoots.—Sepals , 3—6, usually deciduous, 
sometimes unequal. Petals, 3—15, in one or more rows 
distinct, sometimes unequal, sometimes partly or wholly 
missing. Stamens indefinite in number; hypogynous. Car¬ 
pels numerous, seated on a torus, one-celled or united into a 
single man}^celled pistil. Fruit, either consisting of dry 
achiemia, or bacchate with one or more seeds, or follicular 
with one or two valves. Herbs, or very rarely shrubs. Leaves 
alternate or opposite, generally much divided, with the 
petiole dilated, and forming a sheath half clasping the stem. 
Stipules occasionally present. Hairs , if any, simple. In¬ 
florescence variable.” (Lindley.) 
This order comprises between six and seven hundred spe¬ 
cies, some of which are found growing in most parts of the 
world, but more abundant in moist soils in the temperate 
parts of Europe and Asia. A great variety of plants are 
classed under this order, many being found growing wild in 
our pastures and woods, such as the Crowfoots and Ane¬ 
mones. Others are cultivated on account of the floral beauty 
they impart to our gardens, such as the Larkspur and 
Peony; while again others possess very powerful medicinal 
and poisonous properties, such as the Aconite (Monkshood), 
the Hellebore, &c. A powerful narcotic and acrid principle 
is possessed in a greater or less degree by all the plants in 
this order. Several-of them have features of peculiar in¬ 
terest to the veterinary surgeon, and I shall therefore devote 
some considerable space to their notice, commencing with 
the Aconitum napellus (Monkshood), which I shall proceed 
with in my next communication. 
[To be continued .) 
