Page:EB1911 - Volume 22.djvu/914

slightly coloured and the flower is wind-pollinated (T. minus) or visited for its pollen. In Ranunculus and Adonis a calyx of green protective sepals is succeeded by a corolla of showy petals; in Ranunculus (fig. Io) there is a basal honey-secreting gland which is absent in Adonis. In Anemone the achenes bear the persistent naked or bearded style which aids in dissemination; the same purpose is served by the prickles on the achenes of Ranunculus arvensis.

Fig. 10.-Petal of Crowfoot (Ranunculus), bearing at the base a honey gland protected by a scale, s.

Tribe IV. Clematideae comprise the genus Clematis (ga), characterized by its shrubby, often climbing habit, opposite leaves and the valvate, not imbricate as in the other tribes, aestivation of the sepals. The usually four sepals are whorled and petaloid, the numerous stamens and carpels are spirally arranged; the flowers are visited by insects for the sake of the abundant pollen. The fruit consists of numerous achenes which are enerall rolon ed in oth lon g yp g the feathery style,

whence the popular name of the British species, old man’s beard (Clematis wilalba). The genus, which contains about 170 species, has a wide distribution, but is rarer in the tropics than in temperate regions.

Special articles will be found on the more important genera of Ranunculaceae, e.g. Aconitum, Adonis, Anemone, Baneberry (Actaea), Clematis, Columbine, Hellebore, Ranunculus.

RANUNCULUS, familiarly known as “buttercup,” or crowfoot, a characteristic type of the botanical order Ranunculaceae. The Lat. name, which means a little frog or tadpole (dim. of rana, frog), was also given to a medicinal plant, which has been identified by some with the crowfoot. The Ranunculi are more or less acrid herbs, sometimes with fleshy root-fibres, or with the base of the stem dilated into a kind of tuber (R. bulbosus). They have tufted or alternate leaves, dilated into a sheath at the base, and very generally, but not universally, deeply divided above. The flowers are solitary, or in loose cymes, and are remarkable for the number and distinctness (freedom from union) of their parts. Thus there are five sepals, as many petals, and numerous spirally arranged stamens and carpels. The petals have a little pit or honey-gland at the base, which is interesting as foreshadowing the more fully developed tubular petals of the nearly allied genera Aconitum and Helleborus. The fruit is a head of “achenes”—dry, one-seeded fruits. The genus contains a large number of species (about 250) and occurs in most temperate countries in the northern and southern hemispheres, extending into arctic and antarctic regions, and appearing on the higher mountains in the tropics. About twenty species are natives of Great Britain. R. acris, R. repens, R. bulbosus, are the common buttercups. R. arvensis, found in cornfields, has smaller pale yellow flowers and the achenes covered with stout spines. R. Lingua, spearwort, and R. Flammula, lesser spearwort, grow in marshes, ditches and wet places. R. Ficaria is the pilewort or lesser celandine, an early spring flower in pastures and waste places, characterized by having heart-shaped entire leaves and clusters of club-shaped roots. The section Batrachium comprises the water-buttercups, denizens of pools and streams, which vary greatly in the character of the foliage according as it is submersed, floating or aerial, and when submersed varying in accordance with the depth and strength of the current. The ranunculus of the florist is a cultivated form of R. asiaticus, a native of the Levant, remarkable for the range of colour of the flowers (yellow to purplish black) and for the regularity with which the stamens and pistils are replaced by petals forming double flowers. R. asiaticus is one of the older florists' flowers, which has sported into numberless varieties, but was formerly held in much greater esteem than it is at the present time. According to the canons of the florists, the flowers, to be perfect, should be of the form of two-thirds of a ball, the outline forming a perfect circle, with the centre close, the petals smooth-edged, the colour dense, and the marking uniform.

The ranunculus requires a strong and moist soil, with a fourth of rotten dung. The soil should be rom 18 in. to 2 ft. deep, and at about 5 in. below the surface there should be placed a stratum 6 or 8 in. thick of two-year-old rotten cow-dung, mixed with earth, the earth above this stratum, where the roots are to be placed, being perfectly free from fresh dung. The tubers are planted in rows 5 or 6 in. apart, and 3 or 4 in. apart in the rows, the turban sorts in October, the more choice varieties in February. They should be so close that the foliage may cover the surface of the bed. The autumn-planted roots must be sheltered from severe frost. The plants when in flower should be screened from hot sunshine with an awning; when the leaves wither, the roots are to be taken up, dried, and stored. The ranunculus is readily propagated from seed obtained from semi-double sorts, which are often of themselves very beautiful flowers. It is generally sown in boxes in autumn or spring. The young plants thus raised flower often in the second, and always in the third year.

The turban varieties, which are very showy for the borders, are of a few positive colours, as scarlet, yellow, brown, carmine, and white. The florists' varieties have been bred from the Persian type, which is more delicate.

Other species known in gardens are R. aconitifolius (white bachelor's buttons), with leaves recalling aconite, and white flowers; the double-flowered form is known in gardens as fair maids of France or fair maids of Kent. A double-flowered form of R. acris is grown under the name yellow bachelor's buttons. R. bulbosus also has a pretty double-flowered variety. Of dwarfer interesting plants there are R. alpestris, 4 in., white; R. gramineus 6 to 10 in., yellow; R. parnassifolius, 6 in., white; and R. rutaefolius, 4 to 6 in., white with orange centre. Of the taller kinds mention may be made of R. cortusaefolius, a fine buttercup, 3–5 ft. high, from Teneriffe, and hardy in the mildest parts of Britain; and R. hyalli, known as the New Zealand water lily. It is a handsome species, 2 to 4 ft. high, with large peltate leaves often a foot in diameter, and with waxy white flowers about 4 in. across. It is not quite hardy, and even under the best conditions is a difficult plant to grow well.

RAO, SIR DINKAR (1819–1896), Indian statesman, was born in Ratnagiri district, Bombay, on the 20th of December 1819, being a Chitpavan Brahmin. At fifteen he entered the service of the Gwalior state, in which his ancestors had served. Rapidly promoted to the responsible charge of a division, he displayed unusual talents in reorganizing the police and revenue departments, and in reducing chaos to order. In 1851 Dinkar Rao became dewan. The events which led to the British victories of Maharajpur and Panniar in 1844 had filled the state with mutinous soldiery, ruined the finances, and weakened authority. With a strong hand the dewan suppressed disorder, abolished ruinous imposts, executed public works, and by a. reduction of salaries, including his own, turned a deficit into a surplus. When the contingent mutinied in 1857, he never wavered in loyalty; and although the state troops also mutinied in June 1858 on the approach of Tantia Topi, he adhered to the British cause, retiring with Maharaja Sindhia to the Agra fort. After the restoration of order he remained minister until December 18 59. In 1873 he was appointed guardian to the minor Rana of Dholpur, but soon afterwards he resigned, owing to ill-health. In 1875 the Viceroy selected him as a commissioner, with the Maharajas Sindhia and jaipur, and three British colleagues, to try the Gaekwar of Baroda on a charge of attempting to poison the British resident. He also served in the legislative council of India, and was frequently consulted by viceroys on difficult questions. An estate was conferred upon him, with the hereditary title of Raja, for his eminent services, and the decoration of K.C.S.I. He died on the 9th of January 1896. No Indian statesman of the 19th century gained a higher reputation, yet he only commenced the study of English at the age of forty, and was never able to converse fluently in it; his orthodoxy resented social reforms; he kept aloof from the Indian Congress, and he had received no training in British administration.

RAO, SIR T. MADHAVA (1828–1891), Indian statesman, was born at Combaconum in Madras in 1828. Madhava Rao created a new type of minister adapted to the modern requirements of a progressive native state, and he grafted it upon the old stock. He linked the past with the present, using the advantages of heredity, tradition and conservatism to effect reforms in the public administration and in Indian society. Sprung from a Mahratta Brahmin stock long settled at Tanjore, the son of a dewan of Travancore, he was educated in the strictest tenets of his sacred caste. But he readily imbibed the new spirit of the age. To mathematics, science and astronomy he added a study of English philosophy and international law, and a taste for art