Petal venation of Ranunculus sceleratus Linn.

Vein anastomosis has been studied in the leaves of Ginkgo biloba (Arnott, 1959), Kingdonia uniflora (Foster, 1959), and Circaeaster agrestis (Foster, 1963, 1966, 1968), but after the work of Gluck (1919), recent studies on petal venation have been carried by Gumppenberg (1924), Buxbaum (1937) and Arnott and Tucker (1963, 1964). Particularly because of Foster’s suggestion (1968, p. 599) that the petals may provide important clues to the evolutionary developments in venation patterns in the angiosperms, the present work was started. Further, as Arnott and Tucker had studied the venation in Ranunculus repens v. pleniflorus, it was thought that a study of the petals of R. sceleratus may provide useful clues for comparison.