The (mall Spear-Wort is one of thofe plants which is fubjeft to great variation; D odonæus has obferved that
in Holland, where it grows luxuriantly, it acquires the height o f two cubits ; in the cold barren foils of moun
tainous countries it is altogether as diminutive ; in proportion to its ftrength, appears to be the uprightnefs of
its growth; on the ftony margins of lakes, H aller obferved it to be fmall and creeping, with linear leaves-
as it receded from fuch fituations, it became taller, and finally alfumed its ufual appearance : in this fmall and
creeping ftate authors have confidered it as a fpecies; as fuch L inn æ us has adopted it under the name of
reptans, and Mr. L ightfoot figured it on the frontifpiece to the fécond volume of the Flora Scotica; but
when the one defcribed, and the other figured it as a fpecies, they expreffed their doubts of its being fuch •
ScopoLi.alfo is of opinion that the reptans is no other than a variety, arifingfrom foil and fituation. 6
The leaves are ufually toothed, efpecially the upper ones; fometimes they may be found entire, and fome-
times more deeply indented, or ferrated on their edges; the variety in this latter ftate the old authors defcribe'
and figure as a fpecies.
InftinÊl rarely fails in direóling graminivorous animals to rejeft fuch herbs as would prove injurious to them
hence we feldom find this and the other acrid fpecies of Crow-Foot eaten by cattle, but we know that under
certain circumftances they will fometimes err, and become poifoned or difeafed : G erard fays, “ this plant is
called Banewort by fome, bicaufe it is dangerous and deadly for flieepe, and that if they feede of the fame it
inflameth their livers, fretteth and bliftereth their guts, andentrailes D odonæus, from whom G erard probably
borrows this account, reports the fame, and that the plant takes its name in the Netherlands, from its pernicious
effe&s on this harmlefs and ufeful race : Haller quotes an author {Le Noble ladl p. 12.) who fays, that the
livers o f horfes which had fed on this Ranunculus became rotten, and full of little bladders of water, *as well as
fmall animals refembling flounders ; if the rot in fheep. be occafioned by their feeding on any particular plant
and authors be not miftaken in what they fay o f this, none appears more likely to occafion it than the prefent
one. Kine* are faid to feed on it without injury.
Acrid as this Ranunculus is, and injurious as it may be to the larger animals, we obferved on the9th of Iaft July
1791, fmall black larvæ feeding on its flower buds and ftamina, in thofe little kind of dells on Barnes-Common
where the water had been dried up, and where grew Callitriche, Peplis, &c. we fufpeft they were the larvæ of
fome coleopterous infe& ; and on the under fide of a leaf of another plant of the fame fpecies, we difcovered
a duller of eggs, fixty-four in number, depofited moft probably by fome fpecies of moth; the leaves of this
and of every other fpecies of Ranunculus growing wild, or in our gardens, are yearly disfigured, and in fome
feafons deftroyed by a very minute intercutaneous larva or maggot, producing a fmall fly, which we have
named Mufca ranunculi, and of whofe hiftory it is our intention to give an account elfewhere; we have repre-
fented one of the leaves on the plant as it appears marked by this infeÊl.
Mr. L ightfoot informs us, that the Ranunculus Flàmmüla is ufed in many parts of the highlands to raife
blifters ; for this purpofe, in the ifland of Jura, and other parts on the coaft, the leaves are well bruifed in a
mortar, and applied in one or more limpet (hells to the parts where the blifters are to be raifed.
* Boves autem licet magnam comedunt hujus copiam ab hac affici non obfervavi, Brug/ik