BUTTERCUP FAMILY 
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greenish. Petals none. Anthers on thread-like filaments. Fruit an 
achene, tipped with the style. (Greek thallo, to grow green, the ap¬ 
plication uncertain.) 
1. T. polycarpum Wats. Plants 3.6 to 8.6 dm. high; leaflets ovate to 
roundish, serrate, incised or divided into 2 or 3 segments; stamens 16 to 
25; achenes of about the same number, the sides marked with interlacing 
veins.—Hills and narrow valleys. 
7. RANUNCULUS L. Buttercup. Crowfoot 
Stem usually freely branching, the flowers solitary or in clusters at the 
ends of the branches. Leaves basal or alternate. Flowers yellow (some¬ 
times white). Sepals 5. Petals 5, each with a nectar-bearing pit at 
base. Stamens numerous. Pistils many, becoming a globose cluster of 
flattish achenes pointed or beaked by the persistent style. (Latin name 
for a little frog, some species growing in wet places where frogs are 
found.) 
Petals yellow ; nectar-bearing pit covered by a scale. 
Achenes with a firm close coat, not loose or utricular. 
Achenes not spiny, nor with hooked hairs. 
Leaves simple, entire; stems filiform, creeping.1. R. flammula. 
Leaves (or some of them) toothed, lobed or divided. 
Beak of the achenes commonly curved, shorter than the body. 
Petals 9 to 16 ; beak rather closely recurved. 
2. R. calif ornicus. 
Petals 5 or 6; beak more or less erect.3. R. occidentalis. 
Beak of the achenes straight, as long as the body....4. R. bloomeri. 
Achenes prickly, or with stiffish hooked hairs. 
Flowers minute, the petals only as long as the stamens; achenes 
with hooked hairs.5. R. hebecarpus. 
. Flowers medium, the petals much longer than the stamens; achene 
spiny-muricate, with raised border.6. R. muricatus. 
Achenes with a thin coat, striate ; stems creeping.7. R. cymbalaria. 
Petals white; nectar-bearing pit not covered by a scale; aquatic; leaves im¬ 
mersed, filiform-dissected.,.8. R. aquatilis. 
1. R. flammula L. var. reptans E. Mey. Spearwort. Stems slender, 
reclining or creeping, rooting at the joints, 9.6 to 14.4 cm. long; leaves 
lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, entire, 2.4 to 4.8 cm. long; tapering 
below into a petiole; flowers 4 to 8 mm. broad: petals 5; achenes few, the 
beak short and stout.—Margins of pools or streams. 
2. R. californicus Benth. Common Buttercup. Freely branching 
plant with several to many clustered stems (1.2 to 4.8 dm. high) and 
mostly basal leaves; leaves roundish in outline, ternately divided and 
again divided or lobed, the earlier with broad divisions, the later with 
sharply cleft narrowly linear divisions; petals 9 to 16, 8 to 10 mm. long; 
achenes with short stout closely recurved beak.—Open hills and valleys. 
3. R. occidentalis Nutt. var. eisenii Gray. Stems slender, erect, 2.8 to 
4.3 dm. high; herbage with spreading hairs or subglabrous; basal leaves 
roundish, 3 or 5-cleft or -parted; upper with linear segments; petals 5 
or 6; beak of achenes slender, rather closely recurving.—Sierra Nevada 
and Coast Range foothills. 
4. R. bloomeri Wats. Glabrous succulent herb with stems 1.4 to 3.6 
dm. high; leaves simple or mostly with 3 leaflets, long-petioled; leaflets 
roundish, coarsely dentate or incised; flowers few, 3 cm. broad or less; 
