678 POLYANDRIA. POLYGYNIA. Ranunculus 
R. flam'mula. Leaves egg-spear-shaped, rather obtuse, on leaf-stalks: 
stem reclining, radicating. 
Curt. — {E. Bot. 387. E.)—Fl. Dan. 575—Z)od. 432. 1— Lob. Obs. 382. 2, 
and Ic. i. 670. 1— Ger. Em. 061. 2— H. Ox. iv. 29. 34— Wale . 5— Park. 
1215. 2—Ger. 814. 2. 
{Root composed of long simple fibres. Stems six to eighteen inches long, 
spreading, branched, leafy, cylindrical, smooth. Flowers terminal, 
solitary, pedunculated, upright, of a rich shining yellow. Calyx reflexed, 
nearly smooth. Nectary very small. Seeds smooth at the sides. Sm. 
E.) Leaf-stalks long, or rather a doubling of the leaves. Leaves more 
or less toothed or serrated. The plants with leaves serrated are repre¬ 
sented in 
Dod. 432. 2—Lob. Obs. 382.3. and Ic. i. 670. 2— Ger. Em. 962. 3— Pet. 
39. 6— II. Ox. iv. 29. 35— J. B. iii. 864. 3— Ger. 814. 3— Parle. 1215. 3. 
Lesser Spear-wort. (Irish: Laissar Lena. Welsh: Poethflam ; Blaen 
{Meloc proscarab mis and M. violaceus likewise frequent the different species; and one 
or the other by some Entomologists have been represented as the formidable Bupestris 
of the ancients, so injurious to cattle ; but this opinion needs confirmation ; (also on this 
species and R. acris , will be found the parasitic fungus JEcidium Ficariee , “ crowded ; cap¬ 
sule cylindrical, white, spreading; seeds bright orange.” (Cultivated occasionally with 
a double blossom, but even in that state too prone to extend itself as a troublesome 
weed. In an age of ignorance and superstition, (certainly before Intellect had assumed 
the three-league boots), this plant obtained its more common English name from a supposi¬ 
titious virtue in curing hemorrhoids, merely deduced from the peculiar shape of its roots: 
of which, likewise, the Latin trivial ( Ficaria , fig-like), is descriptive. Though unnoticed 
by the poets of old, the more observant moderns have condescended to sing the praises 
even of this unaspiring weed. As the welcome 
“ Herald * * * 
Of a joyous train ensuing,” 
Wordsworth has diffusely lauded the 
“ Little humble Celandine 
And Charlotte Smith thus introduces it as engaging the attention of her adventurous 
butterfly 
tc Trusting the first warm day of spring. 
When transient sunshine warms the sky. 
Light on his yellow spotted wing 
Comes forth the early butterfly. 
With wavering flight he settles now 
Where Pileivort spreads its blossoms fair. 
Or on the grass where daisies blow. 
Pausing, he rests his pinions there.” 
As in the fable of Adonis, Proserpine is said to have restored the favourite to life, on condi¬ 
tion that he should spend six months with her, and the rest of the year with Venus, which 
implies the alternate return of Summer and Winter ; so it is impossible not to believe that 
even the heathen mythologists, though as yet “seeing but through a glass darkly,” in the 
habitual contemplation of such phenomena as the seeming death and revival of nature, 
were confirmed in the innate principle of the soul’s existence after death : 
“ Shall I be left abandon’d in the dust. 
When Fate, relenting, lets the flower revive ? ” Beattie. 
And equally applicable to the like moral inference is the wonderful transmutation of the 
winged insect emerging from its sepulchral chrysalis. Indeed the Christian will therein 
behold a glimmering of that brighter light which was afterwards to be manifested;—a 
typical emblem of the more peculiar and momentous doctrine revealed iu the Gospel. E.) 
