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R A N U N C U L U S acris.
Upright Meadow Crowfoot.
P 0 LYAND RIA Polygyma.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-leaved. Petals 5, with a honeybearing
pore on the infide of the claw of each.
Seeds naked.
Spec. Char. Calyx fpreading. Flower-flalks round
and even. Leaves in three divilions, with many
fegments; the upper ones linear.
S yn. Ranunculus acris. Linn. Sp. P l.yjg. Hudf. 241.
With. 506. Hull. 121. Relh. 214. Sibth. 174. Abbot.
122. Curt. Lohd. fafc. 1. t. 39. Mart. FI.
Rufi. t. 30. Woodv. Suppl. t. 246.
R. pratenlis eredlus acris. Rail Syn. 248.
C OMMON in meadows and paftures. Frequent with double
flowers in gardens. It is perennial, and flowers in June or July.
Root tuberous, with many long Ample fibres. Stem upright,
two feet high, round, clothed with clofe-prefied briftles, branched
above. Radical leaves on long upright hairy foot-ftalks, in
three or five deep divifions, which are varioufly lobed and cut:
ftem-leaves nearly feflile, and lefs cut; the uppermoft in three
entire linear lobes. Flower-flalks round and even, not furrowed,
clothed with clofe hairs. Calyx hairy, fpreading, not reflexed.
Petals of a finning yellow, the nedtary covered with a
notched fcale.
This cannot be confounded with any other wild crowfoot.
The fcale of the nedtary at once diftinguifhes it from R. auri-
comus; the fpreading calyx from lulbofus and hirfutus; the
round flower-flalks from both thofe and repens-, while the
fmooth feeds prevent our miftaking it for any fpecies that has
rough or muricated ones.
The name exprefles its acrid qualities. It is generally fup-
pofed to be an ufelefs weed. We have already hinted, p. 515,
that fuch plants may not be altogether fo, when duly combined
with more infipid ones.