COMMON BUTTERCUP.
Ranunculus Californicus, Benth. Buttercup or Crowfoot Family.
Stems.—Slender; branching; six to eighteen inches high. Radical-leaves.—Commonly pinnately ternate; the leaflets cut into three to seven usually linear lobes. Divisions of the stem-leaves usually narrower. Flowers.—Five to ten lines in diameter; shining golden yellow. Sepals.—Green; strongly reflexed. Petals.—Ten to fourteen; obovate; each with a small scale at the base. Stamens.—Numerous. Pistils.
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Numerous; on a receptacle. Ovaries flattened. Stigmas recurved. Hab.—Throughout Western California into Oregon.
"The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice; And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean To be some happy creature's palace."
The first clear, beautiful note of a lark has been heard; skies are blue and fields are green; little frogs are filling the air with their music;—and the buttercups are here. The fields are full of them, and their bright golden eyes starring the meadows, bring a gladness to the face of nature. The children wade knee-deep in their gold, filling their hands with treasure; and yonder, where their golden masses cover the slopes, King Midas may have passed, transforming the earth with his magical touch.
Because some of the buttercups grow where frogs abound, Pliny bestowed the Latin name Ranunculus, meaning "little frog."
The Indians, who seem to have a use for everything, parch the seeds of our common buttercup and beat them to a flour, which they eat without the further formality of cooking. This flour is said to have the peculiar rich flavor of parched corn.
We have a number of other species of buttercup—some of them denizens of marshy spots; but the common field buttercup is widest-spread and best known.