Ranunculaceae

“ Since the clematis blooms while insect life is at its height, and after most, if not all, of the Ranunculaceae have withdrawn from the competition for trade; moreover, since its white color, so conspicuous in shady retreats, and its accessible nectar attract hosts of flies and the small, short-tongued bees chiefly, that are compelled to work for it by transferring pollen while they feed, it goes without saying that the vine is a winner in life's race. ”

“ It is useful to be able to classify a flower and to know that the buttercup belongs to the Family Ranunculaceae, with petals free and definite, stamens hypogynous and indefinite, pistil apocarpous. But it is far sweeter to learn about the life of the little plant, to understand why its peculiar flower is useful to it, and how it feeds itself, and makes its seed. No one can love dry facts; we must clothe them with real meaning and love the truths they tell, if we wish to enjoy science. ”

“ Cattle will not eat the acrid, caustic plant - a sufficient reason for most members of the Ranunculaceae to stoop to the low trick of secreting poisonous or bitter juices. Self-preservation leads a cousin, the garden monk's hood, even to murderous practices. Since children will put everything within reach into their mouths, they should be warned against biting the buttercup's stem and leaves, that are capable of raising blisters. ”

“ To these may be added a few Ranunculaceae, some Myosotis, low Scabiosae, the common Taraxacum, one species of Chamomilla, and a few Leguminosse. In the north and west the Stipa of the Russian steppes supersedes Festuca and affords splendid pasture for the herds of the Kara- Kirghiz. In the gorges and on the better-watered slopes of the mountains the herbaceous vegetation becomes decidedly rich. ”

“ Among Caryophyllaceæ imperfection as regards the numerical symmetry of the flower is not uncommon, as in species of Cerastium, Sagina, Dianthus, &c. In Ranunculaceæ the petals are likewise not unfrequently partially or wholly suppressed. A familiar illustration of this is afforded by Ranunculus auricomus, in which it is the exception to find the corolla perfect. [466] Some varieties of Corchorus acutangulus in west tropical Africa are likewise subject to the same peculiarity. Amongst Papilionaceæ absence of the carina or of the alæ is not uncommon, as in Trifolium repens, Faba vulgaris, &c. ”

“ Fig. 372.—Diagram of an acyclic Ranunculaceous flower (only 3 stamens are indicated) . The spiral of the sepals has a divergence of 3/5; that of the corolla and subsequent leaves 3/8.
Order 1. Ranunculaceæ. Nearly all are herbs (except Clematis) . The leaves are scattered (except Clematideæ) , they have a large sheath with broad base (no stipules) , and are most frequently palminerved with palmate lobes. The flowers are hypogynous, with most frequently a well pronounced convex receptacle (Figs. 374 B, 380) , ☿, regular (except Delphinium and Aconitum) ; their structure varies very much ”

“ On the drier and higher mountains of the interior of the chain, the forests become more open, and are spread less uniformly over the hill-sides, a luxuriant herbaceous vegetation appears, and the number of shrubby Leguminosae, such as Desmodium and Indigofera, increases, as well as Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Umbelliferae, Labiatae, Gramineae, Cyperaceae and other European genera. ”

“ Ranunculaceae.) (the Clematis-like plant told me by Oliver) , to try and propagate me a plant at once. Have you Clematis cirrhosa? It will amuse me to tell you why Clematis interests me, and why I should so very much like to have Naravelia. The leaves of Clematis have no spontaneous movement, nor have the internodes; but when by growth the peduncles of leaves are brought into contact with any object, they bend and catch hold. The slightest stimulus suffices, even a bit of cotton thread a few inches long ”

“ All the species agree, however, in the seeds, which are produced singly, each in a separate awned carpel, which does not open, but drops with the seed, and is sown with it. These carpels, which are common24 to the genera Ranunculus, Anemone, Adonis, and many other kinds of Ranunculaceæ, are called caryopsides, and seeds thus enclosed are always much longer in coming up than any others. In some species of Clematis the awns of the carpels are smooth ”

“ When the rapacity of collectors shall have reduced it elsewhere to the condition of a vegetable Dodo, future travellers may rejoice that it has found a refuge in this corner of Africa. The distribution of the genus Ranunculus, in nearly every known country, supplies many topics for thought and inquiry. There are very few regions where the unbotanical traveller fails to recognise the familiar buttercup of his youth; yet, if he examines the plants, he will find well-marked differences in the leaves, the fruit, the stem, or the root, though the flowers may be scarcely distinguishable. ”

“ To maintain a collection of named Ranunculuses demands skill and patience, but a few of the most brilliant self-coloured, spotted and striped varieties may be easily grown, if a cool, deep, rich, moist soil can be provided for them. The best soil for the Ranunculus is a loam or clay in which the common field Buttercup grows freely and plentifully. ”

“ There are numerous kinds of Ranunculus, mostly perennials, with fibrous roots, growing in temperate and cold regions. Ours have yellow or white flowers, with three to five sepals and from three to fifteen petals, each of the petals with a nectar-gland at its base; the numerous pistils developing into a roundish or oblong head of akenes. The leaves are variously cut and lobed, the stem leaves alternate. Some sorts grow in the water and some have creeping stems. ”

“ Douglass gave a description and figure in a small treatise published in 1725, which is quoted by Linnæus in his Bibliotheca, but not by Haller.
Of the comprehensive genus Ranunculus, florists, to speak in a botanical sense, have obtained a thousand different kinds1611; for, according to the manner in which they are distinguished by gardeners, the varieties are infinite and increase almost every summer, as those with half-full flowers bear seed which produce plants that from time to time yield new kinds that exhibit greater or uncommon beauties. ”

“ The leaves vary much in shape and in size. The larger, from the root (radical) , are more or less heart-shaped, the edges bluntly angled; the smaller ones, from the stem (caudal) , may approach towards the form of an ivy-leaf. The sepals (calyx) vary from three to five, usually three, and the petals from seven to twelve. The stamens are numerous, as also are the carpels or divisions of the fruit. As in the Anemone (page 3) , these are achenes, a form persistent throughout the genus Ranunculus; each contains a single seed. ”

“ The Ranunculus acris is the first that we offer of these; a plant, in its wild and single state, common in all our rich meadows, and in its improved, or to speak more botanically, in its monstrous state (all double flowers being monsters, for the most part formed from the preternatural multiplication of their petals) it has long been cultivated in gardens abroad, as well as here. ”

“ He may regret, if he is an old man with old-fashioned tastes, that popular liking has deserted Ranunculus asiaticus. He may, if he is a young man, himself sharing the general taste, prefer the dark-eyed Anemone coronaria to the rosetted flowers of earlier favour. But he will certainly give greater space to the latter now. Both of these two are grown in Holland, and both in something the same manner, though ranunculi want a heavier and moister soil than anemones. ”

“ If some feet from the same plant the roots succeed in pushing into a soil only damp, without being submerged, their stalks then are short, none of their leaves are divided into capillary divisions, which gives rise to Ranunculus hederaceus, which the botanists regard as a species whenever they meet with it. ”

“ If we spread a part of the bunch upon a stone, we may discover branching shoots beset with leaf forms; but both organs are widely different from those of their nearest generic relatives. The stems of the ranunculuses of the fields are upright, stiff, skeletonlike, strong enough to defy wind and storm, and able to bear the weight of their leaves, flowers, and fruits. The stems of the water ranunculuses are slack and weak. They are swung around helplessly by the waves, winding hither and thither in the direction toward which the run of the stream carries them. ”

“ This species of Ranunculus, an inhabitant of the dry pastures South of France and Italy, and a hardy herbaceous plant of ready growth, recommends itself by the earliness of its flowering and the delicate glaucous colour of its foliage. Parkinson figures it with double flowers, though he describes it with semi-double ones only; we have not observed either of these varieties in the gardens about London, they have most probably fallen victims to the rage for novelty, at the shrine of which many a fair and goodly flower is yearly sacrificed. ”

“ R. abortivus, var. micranthus, the small-flowered variety of the species.
539. In recording the name of a plant it is usual to append the name, or an abbreviation of the name, of the botanist who first published it; and in a flora or other systematic work, this reference to the source of the name is completed by a further citation of the name of the book, the volume and page where it was first published. So "Ranunculus acris, L.," means that this Buttercup was first so named and described by Linnæus; "R. multifidus, Pursh," that this species was so named and published by Pursh. ”

“ The ranunculus is readily propagated from seed obtained from semi-double sorts, which are often of themselves very beautiful flowers. It is generally sown in boxes in autumn or spring. The young plants thus raised flower often in the second, and always in the third year.
The turban varieties, which are very showy for the borders, are of a few positive colours, as scarlet, yellow, brown, carmine, and white. The florists' varieties have been bred from the Persian type, which is more delicate. ”

“ The ranunculus of the florist is a cultivated form of R. asiaticus, a native of the Levant, remarkable for the range of colour of the flowers (yellow to purplish black) and for the regularity with which the stamens and pistils are replaced by petals forming double flowers. R. asiaticus is one of the older florists' flowers, which has sported into numberless varieties, but was formerly held in much greater esteem than it is at the present time. ”

“ Pressure has been already alluded to as one of the most obvious of the inducing causes of atrophy and suppression.
In the case of Ranunculus auricomus before cited, in which the petals are rarely perfect, M. de Rochebrune considers that the deficiencies in question depend, in great measure, on the amount of moisture in the localities where the plant grows. In most places the flowers and carpels are apt to become more or less abortive, while the leaves are luxuriant; while, in dry places, the foliage is small, but the flowers are more perfect. ”

“ The spikelets are small, pedicellate, smooth, usually 6 to 14-flowered, pale but often tinged with red, the rachilla is jointed between the flowering glumes, and breaks away from above downwards. The empty glumes are very small, subequal, ovate-oblong, hyaline, obtuse and 1-nerved. Floral glumes also are small but slightly longer than the empty ones, ovate-oblong, obtuse and paleate, palea is linear-oblong with smooth or scabrid keels. Stamens are two with small anthers. Grain is obovoid. ”

“ In order to enable them to develop fully they require good culture, a good, deep loamy soil, enriched with well-decayed manure, and if the border be moist, so much the better,'for these ranunculuses delight in a cool, moist soil. ”

“ Leaves are flat. The inflorescence is a raceme or a panicle. Spikelets are one-flowered, borne unilaterally on the branches, and the base is thickened and jointed on the top of a short pedicel. The spikelet has three glumes. The first and the second glumes are subequal, membranous. The third glume is apiculate, hardened in fruit. The lodicules are small and truncate. There are three stamens with linear anthers. Styles are two free, with plumose stigmas. The grain is oblong, free within the hardened glume and its palea. ”

“ The single plant drawing, which illustrates it, is probably not of such great antiquity, however, as those of the ‘Herbarium,’ for its appearance suggests that it was probably executed from nature for this book, and not copied and158 recopied from one manuscript to another before it was engraved. The illustration in question is a full-page wood-cut, showing a number of plants, growing in situ (Plate III) . Several species (e.g. Ranunculus acris, the Meadow Buttercup, Viola odorata, the Sweet Violet, and Convallaria majalis, the Lily-of-the-Valley) are distinctly recognisable. ”

“ The inflorescence is usually a more or less contracted panicle with very slender branches. The spikelets are compressed and consist of only one glume bearing a perfect flower. The solitary flowering glume is chartaceous, awnless, 3- to 5-nerved, the lateral nerves forming the thickened margin of the glume. The palea is narrow, linear-lanceolate, as long as the glume, 3-nerved, rigid, dorsally ciliate, and with hyaline margins. Lodicules are two. Stamens are usually six in number. Styles are short, with plumose stigmas and laterally exserted. ”

“ Sow 100 seeds of the water (submerged) Ranunculus fluitans in a garden. They all grow up as aërial plants, i.e. they vary as they grow precisely in the same way. It is only the weakest (from badly nourished seeds) which get crowded out of existence. Here, then, is definite variation without the aid of natural selection. Ex uno disce omnes.
2. Delimitation of varieties and species by the non-reproduction of intermediate forms.
It is generally said that if 'good species' are isolated, the intermediate forms have been killed off by natural selection. ”