Tas. 6888, 
RANUNCULUS tyatuu. 
Native of New Zealand. 
Nat. Ord. RanuncuLacexZ.—Tribe RaNUNCULEE. 
Genus Ranuncutvs, Linn; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 5.) 
Ranuncvutvs Lyallii; elatus, robustus, foliis radicalibus longe petiolatis crasse 
coriaceis orbicularibus peltatis crenatis, caulinis sessilibus reniformibus supremis 
cuneiformibus lobulatis, floribus maximis corymbosis, pedunculis pedicellis 
sepalisque araneoso-lanatis, petalis perplurimis cuneato-obovatis albis, stamini- 
bus brevibus, acheniis in stylum gracilem flexuosum attenuatis viilosis. 
R. Lyallii, Hook. f. Handbook of New Zealand Flora, p. 4; Armstrong in 
Gard. Chron. N. 8. xv. (1881), p. 74, fig. 1381; Masters, l. c. N. S, xxiii. 
(1885), 351, fig. 67. 
The first specimens of this remarkable plant, which is 
certainly the monarch of the genus, were procured in Milford 
Sound ,on the west coast of the Southern Island of New 
Zealand, by Dr. Lyall, when accompanying Capt. Stokes 
In the surveying voyage of H.M.S. Acheron (1847-9) ; 
unfortunately they consisted of leaves only. These did 
not even suggest the natural family to which they belonged, 
and from their likeness to those of a gigantic Hydrocotyle 
vulgaris were not unnaturally supposed to be referable to 
an unknown umbelliferous plant. In 1860-1 it was redis- 
covered by Drs. Sinclair, R.N., and Haast (now Sir Julius 
Von Haast, F.R.S.), when travelling in the mountains on 
the eastern side of the Middle Island, in marshy places 
at elevations of 3000 to 4000 feet (it attains even 5000 
in the Lake Ohou district); and since that time it has 
been repeatedly found in various localities between the 
latitudes of Canterbury and Otago by Messrs. Travers, 
Hector, Buchanan, and other travellers. Its most re- 
markable character is its peltate leaves, which it shares 
with only three other species, namely, 2. Traversii, Hook. f., 
also a native of the New Zealand Alps and too closely 
allied to R. Lyallit (but differs in its much smaller size 
and broader obcordate petals), and two indigenous in 
South Africa, R. Cooperi, Oliv. (in Hook. Ic. Pl. t. 1502), 
from marshy places on the mountains of Basuto Land, 
and R. Baurii, MacOwan (in Journ. Linn. Soc. xvii. 390, 
- aveusr Ist, 1886. 
