Ae eae he 
STRUCTURAL AND DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 
CHAPTER I. 
1. Tue Burrercur (Ranunculus repens). 
Tue plants known by the name of Buttercups belong to several 
different species of one common genus, Ranunculus ; but the 
one specified is the familiar creeping buttercup which is so 
abundant in grassy ground throughout New Zealand. This 
plant is not a native, but has been introduced here from Britain, 
and is now widely spread. In examining it we shall note all 
its conspicuous characters, employing in its description such 
technical terms as are in common use among botanists. These 
terms may seem difficult to master at first, but you will soon 
become quite familiar with them. 
On pulling up the plant from the ground it is found to have 
a central tufted rootstock, from which numerous white 
branching root-fibres descend into the soil, while leaves and 
branches ascend. Notice that while all the parts below the 
surface of the ground are white, those above, with the excep- 
tion of the flowers, are green. A plant like this, which is 
destitute of woody tissue in its stem, is called a herb, and as 
its branches trail along the ground it is said to be a trailing 
or creeping herb. 
In young plants all the leaves spring from the rootstock, 
and there is no distinct stem, the plant being therefore said to 
be stemless (or acaulescent*), and the leaves are termed 
radical{ leaves, because they apparently spring from the 
root. In older plants several branches spring from the root- 
* Gr. a, without; kaulos (Lat. cawlis), a stem. 
| Lat. radix, a root. 
