Ranunculus.]
KANUNCULACEiE.
21
mostly 5, but sometimes 6 or 7. Carpels large, collected into a globose bead, roundish, or inclining toobovatc, compressed, (piito glabrous, margined, the margin tapering upwards into a recurved filiform style,flat, broad, and membranous at the base, about equal in length with the carpel.
Dr. Bigelow, or Muhlenberg in Bigelow’s Flora of Boston , is the authority for R. fascicirfaris ; and ourCanadian specimens in every particular agree with those I have received from Dr. Bigelow and Dr. Boott,from Boston . Schlechtendal appears to have seen quite another plant in Willdenow ’s Herbarium, underthis name, which he has figured in his “ Auimadversationcs.” Our specimen of the following species soentirely agrees with it, that 1 have ventured to consider it the same.
28. R. Schlcchtcndalii ; patente pilosus, caule snbramoso brevi, foliis longe petiolatiscordato-reniformibus tripartite, lobis obovatis trifidis laciniatisve, sepalis pilosis patentibusdemuin reflexis corolla brevioribus, stylo germinibus subu'que longo.—Ranunculus fasci-cularis. Schlecht. Animadv. Sect. 2. p. 30. t. 2.
Radix fasciculatim fibrosa. Caules spithamau, 2, 3, vel 4 exeadem radice, superne ramosi, parce foliosi,pilosi, pilis patentibus, versus basin etiam reflexi. Folia subhirsuta, ciliata, omnia petiolata, mollia; radi-calia petiolis longissimis, omnia , (uisi in summitate caulis, ubi lanceolata trifida vel subintegra,) cordata velreniformia, tripartita, segmentis obovatis, lateralibus bilobis, lobis bi-trifidis, intermedio trifido, laciniis acutis.Flores majusculi. Sepala mcmbranacea, patentia, demum reflexa, petalis breviora. Petala obovata, lincata.Fructus non vidi, sed pi.stillorum stylus longiusculis, subcurvatus.
IIah. Eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains , between lat. 52° and 55°, in rich soils: plentiful.Drummond. —This plant agrees in every particular, as far as I can judge without fruit, with the descriptionand figure above quoted of Schlcclitendal’s 11. fascicularis, except that his figure represents a slendererplant, and one of the leaves has the middle lobe petiolated, and the calyx not reflexed. The rest of the foliage,the flowers, the patent hairs, the fasciculated root, and whole habit entirely correspond.—The species like-wise approaches, in habit, luxuriant states of It. Eschscholtzii, but the leaves and stalks of It. Schlcchtcndaliiare always hairy, and the calyx is never clothed with fulvous hairs.
29. 11 . bulbosus ; foliis longe petiolatis ternatis quinato-pinnatisve, foliolis tri-quinque-partitis, laciniis trifidis vel incisis, caule erecto basi bulboso, calyce reflexo, petalis obcor-tlatis brevioribus.— Linn. Sp. PI. p. 778. Pursh, PL Am. v. 2. p. 398. Engl. Rot. t. 15.lie Cand. Prodr. v. 1 . p. 41 .
Hah. Canada . Lady Dalhousie. Newfoundland . Dr. Morrison.
30. 11. orthorhynchus ; appresso-pilosus, caule erecto gracili superne raraoso et sublblioso,foliis radicalibus petiolatis ternatis, foliolis linenri-inultifidis apicibus albo-callosis, calycereflexo, stylo carpellis longiore recto stricto. (Tab. IX.)
Radix fasciculatim fibrosa, fibris crassis descendentibus. Tola planta pilis sparsis arete appressis rigidistecta. Caulis pedalis ad sesquipedalem, erectus, gracilis, superne dichotome ramosus, ad divisiones ramorumfoliosus, reliquus nudus. Folia plcraquc radicalia sublonge petiolata, circumscriptione ovata, ternatim-pinna-titida, foliolis in laciniis plurimis linearibus acutis apicibus callosis pinnatilidis partitis: Caulina sessilia,laciniis magis angusta. Pedunctdi graciles, clongati. Calyx sepalis ovalibus reflexis, corolla duplo breviori-bus. Petala ovalia, flava, majuscula. Capitula subrotunda, laxa. Carpdla late semi-ovata compressa,minute punctata, marginata, stylo vel rostro carpellis longiore, recto, stricto, sensim attenuata.
Hah. Not unfrequent on the low points of land near rivers, in North-West America. Douglas. —Thismost distinct and interesting species of Ranunculus is remarkable for the deeply cleft segments of its leaves,and their linear lobes, which rather resemble those of some species of Anemone , or of Papaver nudicaule,than any of the North American kinds of Ranunculus.
Tab. IX. R. orthorhynchus. Fig. 1, Capsule :— magnified.