Ranunculus

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A large genus of polypetalous plants, type of order Ranunculaceæ and of the tribe Ranunculeæ. It is characterized by the perfect flowers with from three to five caducous sepals, three to five or even fifteen conspicuous petals, each marked at the base by a nectar-bearing scale or pit, and by the many achenes in a head or spike, each beaked with a short persistent style. There are about 200 species, scattered throughout the world, abundant in temperate and cold regions, with a few on mountain-tops in the tropics; 15 species are British, and about 47 occur in the United States, besides at least 9 others in Alaska; 23 are found in the Atlantic States, The genus is remarkable for its development northward, extending to the Alentian Islands and Point Barrow, and even to Fort Conger. 81° 44′ north. Others extend well to the south, as the Fuegian R. biternatus. The species have usually a perennial base or rootstock, and bear deeply divided leaves, entire in a few species, and yellow or white terminal flowers (pink in R. Andersoni of Nevada), which are generally bright and showy, and have numerous and conspicuous short yellow stamens and a smaller central mass of yellow or greenish pistils. The more common species, with bright-yellow flowers and palmately divided leaves, are known as buttercup and crowfoot, especially R. acris and R. bulbosus, which have also the old local names of butter-flower, butter-daisy, blister-plant, crow-flower, and in Scotland yellow gowan. (See also goldcup, and cut under ovary.) A number of yellow species are cultivated under the name garden ranunculus, as R. speciosus, a favorite source of cut flowers, and especially the Persian R. Asiaticus, with three-parted leaves, parent of a hundred varieties, mostly double, and including scarlet and other colors, R. aconitifolius, a tall European species with five-parted leaves, is cultivated in white double-flowered varieties under the names bachelor's-buttons and fair-maids-of-France or -of-Kent. The bright-yellow flowers of R. insignis, a densely woolly New Zealand species, are nearly 2 inches across. Several white-flowered species are remarkable for their growth in rock-crevices amid perpetual snow, especially R. glacialis of the Alps, and also the yellow-flowered R. Thora, the mountain wolf's-bane. A few weedy species have prickly fruit, as R. arcensis of England (for which see hungerweed, hedgehog, 3, and joy, 4), Many species are so acrid as to raise blisters when freshly gathered, but are sometimes eaten, when dried, by cattle, R. sceleratus, said to be the most acrid species, is eaten boiled as a salad in Wallachia, as are also the roots of R. bulbosus, the acridity disappearing on boiling, R. auricomus (see goldilocks) is exceptional in the absence of this acrid principle, as also R. aquatilis, which sometimes forms almost the entire food of cattle. This and several other species, the water-crowfoots, are immersed aquatics with finely dissected foliage, forming deep-green feathery masses which bear white emersed flowers; among them is R. Lyalii of New Zealand, one of the most ornamental species, there known as water-lily. The yellow water-crowfoot, R. multifidus, found from North Carolina to Point Barrow, has kidney-shaped and cut floating leaves. Several species with long and mainly undivided leaves are known as spearwort. For R. Ficaria, celebrated as one of the earliest English flowers, and as Wordsworth's flower, see celandine, 2, pilewort, and figwort, 2. See also cut under achenium.
2. n. A plant of the genus Ranunculus.

Wiktionary

1. n. A taxonomic genus within the tribe Ranunculeae — the ranunculuses, including the buttercup etc.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A genus of herbs, mostly with yellow flowers, including crowfoot, buttercups, and the cultivated ranunculi (Ranunculus Asiaticus, Ranunculus aconitifolius, etc.) in which the flowers are double and of various colors.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. annual, biennial or perennial herbs: buttercup; crowfoot.