/J ! [ 1484 ]
ANEMONE ranunculoides.
Yellow Wood Anemone.
POLY ANURIA Polygynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. none. Petals. 5—9, or more. Seeds
several.
Spec. Char. Seeds without tails. Stalk with one or two
flowers, furnished with a three-leaved, nearly sessile,
leafy involucrum. Petals five, elliptical.
Syn. Anemone ranunculoides. Linn. Sp. PI. 762.
Sm. FI. Brit. 582. Buds. 237. With. 499.
Bull. 120. FI. Dan. t. 140.
A. nemorum lutea. Ger. em. 383.
Ranunculi quarta species lutea. Fuchs. Bist. 162.
N o wonder that the old botanists scarcely knew whether to refer
this plant to the genus of Ranunculus or to that of Anemone.
The sound principles of the science however, founded on the
fructification, and generally confirmed by the habit, rightly understood,
as in this instance, readily decide such questions.
Mr. Hudson first added this to the list of English plants,
having observed it in Hertfordshire and Kent, apparently
wild. We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of his observation,
but we venture to remark that the plant easily becomes
naturalized in old undisturbed gardens or plantations. It is
perennial, and flowers in the early spring. Ours is a garden
specimen.
In habit it is next akin to A . nemorosa, with which it agrees
in the root, but the floral leaves are more sessile. There are
often 2 flowers together. The petals are always yellow, and
their natural number appears to be 5, rarely 6. The stem is
smooth, the flower-stalk hairy.