2 
Dicotyledons with Polypetalous Flowers—Ranunculacece. 
4. HELLEBORES. Sepals imbricate. Petals tubular or spurred, minute or wanting. Ovules numerous. Fruit 
usually follicular.— Examples, Christmas Rose (. Helleborus niger), Marsh Marigold (Galtha palustris ), Larkspur 
[Delphinium). 
5. Psonies. Sepals imbricate. Petals large and thin. Ovules numerous. Fruit follicular.— Example 
Garden Paeony (. Pceonia officinalis and allies). 
Flowers regular; or irregular in Monkshood ( Aconitum) and Larkspur ; solitary, racemose, or panicled. 
Sepals deciduous ; or persistent in Hellebore (Helleborus); aestivation imbricate, or valvate in Clematis; often 
coloured or petal-like; 5 or 4, 10 or more in Globe-flower ( Trollius ), usually 6 in Anemone, 3 in Ranunculus 
Ficaria ; posterior sepal galeate in Monkshood, spurred in Larkspur. 
PETALS 5, or more in some species of Ranunculus and Globe-flower; fewer and unequal, the posterior 
deformed, in Larkspur and Aconite ; spurred in Columbine (Aquilegia); smaller than the sepals and tubular 
in Hellebore; linear in Globe-flower; wanting in Clematis, Thalictrum, Anemone, and Marsh Marigold. 
STAMENS indefinite ; few in Mousetail (Myosurus) and in some species of Ranunculus. 
CARPELS indefinite; few or definite in Thalictrum, Marsh Marigold, Hellebore, Nigella, Columbine, Aconite, 
Paeony; solitary in Baneberry (Actcea) and Larkspur ; connate in Nigella. 
OVULES anatropous, solitary or indefinite. 
FRUIT various; achenes in Clematis, Thalictrum, Anemone, Adonis, Mousetail, and Ranunculus ; follicles 
in Marsh Marigold, Globe-flower, Hellebore, Columbine, Larkspur, Aconite, Paeony ; capsule in Nigella ; berry in 
Baneberry. 
USES, &c.—Juices generally acrid ; in Monkshood and Baneberry very poisonous. Tramps, to excite 
compassion, use the leaves of some species of Ranunculus to raise ulcers. Several Ranunculacece are or have been 
used medicinally. Many are ornamental garden-flowers, as species of Clematis, Anemone including the Hepatica 
(Anemone Hepatica), Ranunculus—especially the gay double-flowered oriental JR. asiaticus , Columbine, Globe-flower, 
'Christmas Rose, Thalictrum aquilegifolium, Monkshopd, Larkspur, Paeony, Nigella. 
