202 RANSOM RANUNCULUS lished an investigation of the theory of molec- ular vortices, and was elected a fellow of the royal society of Edinburgh, to which in 1850 he presented a paper on the mechanical action of heat, especially in gases and vapors, pub- lished in 1851. In 'the winter of 1850-'51 he took up his residence in Glasgow, and in 1852 read to the philosophical society a paper on transformation of energy. In 1855 he was chosen a fellow of the royal society of Lon- don, and delivered a course of lectures on the mechanical action of heat in the university of Glasgow, and was elected regius professor of civil engineering there. He published "Man- ual of Applied Mechanics" (1858); "Manual of the Steam Engine and other Prime Movers " (1859); "Civil Engineering" (1862); "Useful Rules and Tables" (1866); "Cyclopaedia of Machine and Hand Tools" (1869); and " Man- ual of Machinery and Millwork" (1869). RANSOM, an E. county of Dakota, recently formed and not included in the census of 1870 ; area, about 1,800 sq. m. The N. part is wa- tered by the Sheyenne river, a tributary of the Red, and the S. W. corner by the Dakota. The surface consists of rolling prairies. RANTOFL, Robert, jr., an American states- man, born in Beverly, Mass., May 13, 1805, died in Washington, D. C., Aug. 7, 1852. He graduated at Harvard college in 1826, was ad- mitted to the Essex bar in 1827, and practised in South Reading till 1832, when he removed to Gloucester, which town he represented in the legislature in 1834-'7. He exerted him- self for the abolition of capital punishment, and his report on that subject is still one of the standard authorities of the opponents of the practice. In 1837 he was appointed a member of the Massachusetts board of educa- tion. In 1838 he removed to Boston, in 1843 was appointed by President Tyler collector of the port, and in 1845 United States district attorney. In 1851 he filled a part of the un- expired term of Daniel Webster in the United States senate; and in the session of 1851-'2 he sat in the house of representatives, having been elected as a freesoiler. His speeches and writings, with a memoir, appeared in 1854. RANUNCULUS (Lat., a little frog, some of the species growing in wet places where frogs abound), the botanical name of a large genus of plants, the common species of which are popularly known as buttercup, kingcup, or crowfoot. The genus gives its name to a large family, the ranunculacece, which cpmprises plants widely differing in their external ap- pearance, many of which are among the best known and most showy wild and garden plants ; the anemones, columbines, larkspurs, aconites, pssonies, and others belong here. In modern systematic works upon botany this family is placed at the head of the list, and is the one with which the student first makes acquaint- ance, examples being found almost everywhere ; the flowers are usually rather large and the structure distinct and easily made out. The Ranunculus Section of Flower. ranunculacece consist mainly of herbs (rarely undershrubs or woody climbers) with a color- less, acrid juice ; they are polypetalous, or when the petals are absent the calyx is colored like, and is often mistaken for, the corolla ; the stamens numerous, and the pistils (usually more than one) dis- tinct (rarely some- what united), one- celled, and one- to many-ovuled. The leaves when not radical are alter- nate, or in a few genera opposite, of- ten much divided, and have sheathing petioles. In ranunculut itself there are five sepals and five flat petals, each with a little scale or pit at its base ; nu- merous pistils, which ripen into a head of most- ly flattened, one-seeded fruits or akenes ; some- times the sepals and petals are only three, or the petals more than five, and sometimes white instead of the usual yellow. There are about 160 species, which are distributed all over the world ; in the eastern states there are some 20 species, including four introduced from Eu- rope, and in the far west several others. Some are truly aquatics, others abound in muddy and swampy places ; one is found only at the seaside or by the shores of the great lakes, and others are common weeds. All have an acrid juice, which in some is so powerful as to blister readily, and was formerly used as a vesicant ; the leaves are said to be used by the profes- sional beggars of London to keep up ulcers with which to excite sympathy. This acridity is dissipated in drying ; one of the most active, very common in the meadows in the older states, is cut in large quantities with the grass, and is eaten with the hay, though animals at pasture avoid it in the fresh state. The species common as meadow weeds are the bulbous and the tall buttercups ; the first named (R. bul- losus), more abundant in New England than elsewhere, is readily distinguished by the bulb- like base to the stem, and its very large flowers, more than an inch broad, and of a very deep shining yellow, blooming from May to July. Tall buttercup (R. acrti) is more widely dis- tributed and grows twice as high as the pre- ceding, in rich soil being 8 ft. or more tall ; its stem is not bulbous, and its smaller and paler flowers appear in June and continue till August and later. There are double varie- ties of both these species, common in gardens as double buttercups, the boutons cTor of the French. The creeping crowfoot or buttercup (R. repens) is a very common species, forming long runners which root at every joint ; it is extremely variable, and often found without runners ; it is a native, and somewhat trouble- some in moist meadows and pastures. The yellow water buttercup (R. multifidui or R. Punhii of the older books) has its leaves very much dissected into filiform divisions, and bears
