RANUNCULUS. Familiarly known as “buttercups,” the species of this genus form the type of the order Ranunculacese. The plants are herbs, sometimes with fleshy root-fibres, or with the base of the stem dilated into a kind of tuber (R. bulbosus). They have tufted or alternate leaves, dilated into a sheath at the base and very generally, but not universally, deeply divided above. The flowers are solitary, or in loose cymes, and are remarkable for the number and distinctness (freedom from union) of their parts. Thus there are five sepals, as many petals arranged in whorls, numerous stamens, and numerous carpels arranged in spires. The petals have a little pit or gland at the base, which is interesting as foreshadowing the more fully developed tubular petals of the nearly allied genera Aconi-tum and Helleborus. The presence of all the floral organs in a free condition induced A. P. de Candolle to place Ranunculus at the head of the vegetable kingdom, but at the present time the reverse opinion holds good, and Ranunculus with its numerous separate parts is supposed to occupy a lower status than a flower in which a greater amount of consolidation and differentiation takes place. The genus is large as to number of species, which occur in most temperate countries in the northern and southern hemispheres, and, while they extend into arctic and antarctic regions, they show little or no tendency to inhabit tropical countries except on the higher mountains. Several are natives of Great Britain, occurring in pastures, while the water-buttercups, denizens of pools and streams, vary greatly in the character of the foliage according as it is submersed, floating, or aerial, and when submersed varying in accordance with the depth and strength of the current. The ranunculus of the ...