The New Student's Reference Work/Buttercup

Buttercup, a well-known wild-flower, member of the Crowfoot family.  It was brought to this country from Europe and is generally distributed throughout Canada and the United States.  In the north, Buttercups are especially abundant and handsome.  Their season of blooming is from May to September, localities preferred by them meadows, fields, roadsides and grassy places.  English children call Buttercups, King-Cups or Gold-Cups.  Shakespeare speaks of them as “cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,” and says they “do paint the meadows with delight.”  There are many kinds, but the first comer is the Bulbous Buttercup, blooming early in May, lasting till the end of June; a small, erect plant of meadow and roadside, the blossoms golden-yellow, leaves bright green.  The Meadow Buttercup grows in field and by roadside, sometimes rises as high as three feet, and blooms from May to August, occasionally until frost, the flower, pale yellow.  The Swamp or Marsh Buttercup, dots with gold low meadow lands, blooming from April to July, its blossoms huge and satiny.  Children are warned not to bite Buttercup stem and leaf, as a blister might result.  Buttercups, if eaten in large quantities by cows, might prove poisonous, but the acrid taste is too disagreeable for more than a few nibbles.