R A N U N C U L U S auricomus.
Wood Crowfoot.
P 0 L Y A N D R IA Polygyma•
Gen. Char. Cal. five-leaved. Petals 5, with a honeybearing
pore on the infide of the claw o f each.
Seeds naked.
Spec. Char. Radical leaves kidney-thaped, three-cleft,
crenate; ftem-leaves divided to the bafe into linear
fegments. Stem many-flowered. Calyx coloured.
Syn. Ranunculus auricomus. Linn. Sp. PI. 775. Hudf.
242. With. 505. Hull.xzx. Relh.zxz. Sibth. 172.
Abbot. 121. Curt. Lond. fafc. 2. t. 4r.
R . nemorofus dulcis, fecundus Tragi. Rail Syn. 248.
NATIVE of dry woods and fliady places, but not fo general
as molt other fpecies of Crowfoot, flowering in April and
May.
Root fibrous, perennial. Steins about a foot high, upright,
branched, leafy, round, often {lightly downy in the upper part.
Leaves generally inclined to be downy; the radical ones on long
footftalks, kidney-fliaped, moftly three-cleft, deeply notched,
fometimes five-cleft; thofe on the ftem feflile, divided to the
bafe into many linear lobes, which are feldom fubdivided or cut.
Flowers terminal, ereft, folitary, of a bright golden hue. Calyx
pale yellow, hairy, fcarcely at all reflexed. Ne&ary a naked
pore, not clofed by any fcale.
In cold backward feafons the real petals are fometimes wanting,
the calyx being dilated and more coloured than ufual, fo as
to fupply their place.
This fpecies has been called Goldilocks, and Sweet Wood
Crowfoot; the epithet fw e etbeing intended to exprefs, that it
has none of the acrid or cauftic flavour ufual in the genus
Ranunculus.