t'ETRiE. — Descriptions of new Plants. 326 



Aet. XL. — Descriptions of new Native Plants. 

 By D. Petrie, F.L.S. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 8th Slay, 1886.] 



1. Ranunculus berqgreni, n. sp. 



Small, glabrous, glossy green. 



Eootstock as thick as a crow-quill, creeping, and sending off 

 long roots. 



Leaves all radical, on slender flattened petioles ^-1 inch long ; 

 blade orbicular-reniform, 8-11 lines in diameter, unequally 

 3-lobed to the middle, the lobes crenate and beautifully reticulated. 



Scapes 1 or 2, 1-flowered, slender, naked, glabrous, 1^-3^ 

 inches long. 



Sepals 5, ovate, obtuse, yellowish-green, with brown margins. 



Petals 6, rich golden-yellow above, more or less green 

 below ; narrow-obovate, very obtuse, sometimes pink at the 

 edges on the back ; nectary near the base conspicuous. 



Mature achenes not seen ; in young forms the style is 

 terminal, subulate, and recurved. 



Hah: Carrick Eange, near Cromwell ; 4,000 feet : collected 

 November, 1885. I visited this habitat in February of this 

 year, expecting to get mature achenes ; but in this I was dis- 

 appointed, for the plants were eaten down by sheep or rabbits, 

 no doubt in consequence of the exceptionally dry season render- 

 ing green food very scarce. 



2. Haloragis spicata, n. sp. 



A slender, erect, branched herb, 4-10 mches high. 



Stems slender, wiry, grooved, sparingly scabrid, usually 

 divided near the base into several branches. 



Leaves in opposite pairs, diminishing upwards, almost sessile, 

 coriaceous, with distinct midiib, acute, elliptic-oblong, sparingly 

 pilose or almost glabrous, ^-f inch long, with five distinct 

 rather deep serratures at equal intervals along the margin. 



Peduncles numerous, branching off from the top of the stem, 

 with several (7 or fewer) single or paired small sub-hispid bracts, 

 bearing in their axils perfect or imperfect sessile flowers. 



Stigmas 4, plumose, long, turned down on the ovoid 4-angled 

 smooth nut, which is J^th inch long and stout. Fruit, 1 -celled. 



Hah. Moist terraces, top of Lake Hawea, 1,150 feet. 



I have not been able to satisfy myself as to the nature of 

 some of the flowers. The upper one or two in each spike is 

 perfect, and produces large nuts, while the others appear to be 

 staminate only. Only a study of later and more mature fresh 

 plants can settle whether the lower flowers are perfect. So far 

 as I can judge from my materials, the uppermost, or two upper, 

 flowers of each spike alone are perfect. 



