The Upright Buttercup or Meadow Crowfoot (_Ranunculus acris_) is often confused with the two similar species (_R. repens_ and _R. bulbosus_) already described in Chapter VIII, but it may be easily distinguished from the former by the absence of creeping stems, and from the latter by the spreading calyx and by the fibrous root without any bulbous swelling. The whole plant is covered with soft hairs more or less spreading; and it varies in height from six inches to three feet according to the nature of the soil in which it grows. Its leaves are all stalked with the exception of the few upper ones, and are very deeply divided into three, five, or seven radiating segments which are again cut into three lobes with acute divisions. The flowers are rather large, on long terminal stalks, with a calyx of five yellowish-green, concave sepals; and a very bright yellow corolla. The carpels are ovate, slightly flattened, smooth, arranged in a globular head; and the fruits are also smooth. The plant flowers during June and July. Another 'Buttercup'--the Pale Hairy Crowfoot (_R. hirsutus_) is to be seen in our pastures; and though not so common as the three just mentioned, it is very generally distributed in England and the South of Scotland. It seldom exceeds a foot in height, and flowers from June to the end of the summer. Its stem is erect, hairy, and freely branched; and its leaves are much like those of the Bulbous Buttercup (p. 110). The flowers, however, are smaller and more numerous than those of the latter, and are of a paler yellow colour; but the sepals are bent back on the flower-stalk as in this species. The fruits are rough when quite ripe, with little tubercles along the margins. [Illustration: THE GOLD OF PLEASURE.] Cruciferous flowers are not at all abundant in fields and meadows during the summer months, but one species--the Gold of Pleasure (_Camelina sativa_)--may be seen in the flax-fields of South Britain and Ireland during June and July. The plant has a simple or slightly branched stem, from one to three feet high; and its leaves are all sessile, narrow, arrow-shaped, either entire or slightly toothed, with pointed lobes at the base. The flowers are small, yellow, arranged in a long, loose raceme; and the fruits are oval siliquas, with convex valves, a distinct central vein, and edges flattened into a narrow wing. [Illustration: THE BLADDER CAMPION.]