The word Ranunculus will doubtless conjure up in the minds of my readers those very showy, double, brilliantly-coloured flowers, which flower in spring, and are generally grown in beds like tulips. These flowers form a species of the genus, under the name of _Ranunculus asiaticus_; and having been introduced from Asia, they have retained their botanic name from not having any English one. The honour of giving a name to the genus does not, however, rest on them, but belongs to a common English weed. Every one who has travelled through England in the months of June and July, must have remarked the almost innumerable buttercups which glitter among the long grass of the meadows at that season; and those who observe closely, will have noticed that these brilliant little flowers are never found in poor soil, or in hilly situations, but in rich valleys where the grass is rank and luxuriant from abundance of moisture. It is this circumstance that has obtained for the buttercup the botanical name of Ranunculus, the word being derived from Rana, a frog, a creature that delights in moist places. The buttercup being the type of the genus Ranunculus, and the order Ranunculaceæ, a close examination of its flowers will show the peculiarities which distinguish both the genus and the order. The characteristics of the order, as far as regards the number and position of the carpels and stamens, are shown in the section of the flower in the lower part of _fig._ 4; and those of the genus are, a green calyx of five sepals, and a bright coloured corolla of five petals (see _a_ in _fig._ 4); numerous stamens, the anthers of which are adnate, that is, with the filament growing up the back (see _b_); and numerous carpels (_c_) affixed to the upper part of the receptacle, which is drawn up in the shape of a cone to receive them. The flower shown in _fig._ 4, and the detached petal (_e_), given separately to show the little scale at its base, are of the natural size; but the anther _b_ is magnified to show the curious manner in which it is affixed, for its whole length, to the filament. The section of the flower is also magnified to show the elevated receptacle, and the position of the carpels _c_ and the stamens _d_ with regard to each other. The line _g_ shows the position of the corolla, and _f_ that of the calyx, while the short line between the corolla and the stamens indicates the scale, which, from its being supposed to serve as a receptacle for honey, is sometimes called the nectary. The carpels, it will be observed, each consists of a broad part swollen in the centre, which is the ovary, with a curved part or beak at one end, terminating in a sharp point, which is the stigma. Each ovary contains only one ovule, and when the seed ripens, the carpel does not open to discharge it, but drops with the seed. When the flower is fully expanded, the green carpels may be seen in the centre, surrounded by the stamens, as shown at _h_ in