256 Transactions. — Botany. 



Art. XLIV. — A Description of some newly -discovered and rare 

 Indigenous Plants : being a further Contribution towards the 

 making known the Botany of New Zealand. By W. Colenso, 

 F.L.S., etc. 



[Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 14th December, 1885.] 



Class I. Dicotyledons. 

 Order I.* BANUNCULACEiE. 

 Genus 3. Ranunculus, Linn. 

 1. R. ruahinicus, sp. nov. 



Erect, stout, 2 feet high, paniculately branched, many flowered, 

 thickly pilosely- villous, light-green with a yellowish tinge ; hairs 

 mostly short, pale reddish -brown. Leaves orbicular, 4^ - Si- 

 inches broad, coriaceous, upper surface slightly hairy, with long 

 strigillose hairs ; under surface much more hairy, the hairs 

 shorter, and springing singly from pits or minute depressions in 

 the lamina, but long and thick on the veins; 10-12 ribbed, ribs 

 extending to margin, stout, prominent below ; much reticulately 

 veined ; margins crenately-serrate (usually 1 broad crenature 

 and 1 smaller and more acute one), each with a small dark- 

 brown raised point or knob at the apex end of a vein ; sparingly 

 sub-lobed, lobes 3-4 lines deep and over-lapping ; edges thickly 

 ciliate ; sinus broad diverging ; petiole stout, 4-5 inches long, 

 3 lines wide, hairy like under-surface of leaf, sheathing at base 

 with a pair of broad membranous stipules. Peduncle stout, 2 

 lines wide, cylindrical, fistular, with a whorl of three cauline 

 linear-lanceolate sessile bracts, l£ inches long, 4 lines wide, 

 3-nerved, thickish, with a few scattered hairs on the upper 

 surface, margins entire and much ciliate ; pedicels 4, sub- 

 fasciculate, each 4 inches long, sub-angular, bi-bracteolate about 

 the middle ; bracts sessile, linear, 8-9 lines long, diverging. 

 Flowers bright glossy yellow (rather pale, not dark) on the face, 

 paler and dull, with a tinge of green, on the back ; 1 J - 1^ 

 inches diameter. Sepals 5 (similar in colour to the petals on 

 the back), broadly ovate, i inch long, very concave, hairy, 

 strongly and coarsely veined, almost ribbed ; 3 principal veins 

 at base soon branching into 8-9 longitudinal ones ; tip thickened 

 obtuse emargiuate green ; margins very thin and largely 

 ciliate. Petals (always) 5, large, broadly cuneate, with scarcely 

 any claw ; 7 lines wide at top and about 8 lines long, spreading, 

 wavy, margins refiexed, emargiuate, obsoletely nerved (nerves 

 prominent in dried specimens), with one broad stout glandular 

 depression having a ridged margin close to base. Anthers very 



* The numbers in this paper attached to both Orders and genera, are 

 those of the " Handbook of the New Zealand Flora." 



