Hekriott. — Plants from the Southern Islands. 387 



in diameter, 3-cleft to or beyond the middle, mostly with a closed 

 sinus, the broad lobes again 2-3-lobed or coarsely toothed."* 



Hob.—" Auckland Island, 1,800 ft." (Kirk). 



This plant is included in Kirk's account of the Campbell 

 Island flora published in the New Zealand Transactions of 1881 

 (p. 387). There is no description of it in Dr. Cockayne's paper, 

 but as there was a plant growing on the rockery I examined it 

 for the sake of comparison with the other two species. It 

 resembles most closely R. subscaposus. 



Anatomy (fig. 3.) — There is no cuticle on either surface, and 

 the cells of the lower epidermis (l.ep.) are slightly larger than 

 those of the upper (ep.). There are stomata {st.) on both surfaces 

 in this case, and long thick-walled unicellular hairs (h.). It 

 resembles R. pinguis in having stomata on both surfaces, but 

 R. subscaposus in all other respects, as, for instance, in the 

 thickness of the leaf, presence of hairs on both surfaces, and ab- 

 sence of cuticle. The chlorenchyma (chlor.) is differentiated into 

 palisade (pal.) of one layer, consisting of cells not so large as 

 those of R. subscaposus, and spongy of 3-4 layers of elongated 

 cells about twice as long as broad, arranged very loosely so as 

 to leave numerous air-spaces (a.s.). This loose arrangement 

 of spongy tissue is a characteristic feature of all these three 

 species of Ranunculus, and is doubtless a direct result of the 

 moist or semi-aquatic habitant to insure a sufficient aeration 

 of the chlorophyll-containing cells of the chlorenchyma, without 

 which assimilation is checked. The main vascular bundle, as 

 in the case of R. subscaposus, lies below a depression of the upper 

 leaf surface, and below it the lower epidermis (l.ep.) is strength- 

 ened by a double layer of collenchymatous cells (col.). 



Colobanthus subulatus, Hook. f. 



" A small, moss-like, densely csespitose, perfectly glabrous 

 plant, with subulate, rigid, shining leaves, forming tufts 1 in. 

 nigh. Leaves densely imbricated, about \ in. long, with acicular 

 points, grooved above, convex on the back."J 



" This plant forms small, convex, round, dense, soft cushions, 

 about 5 cm. in diameter. At the ends of each shoot are 6-8 

 stout green leaves, about 7 mm. in length, the base membranous 

 and sheathing, the apex acicular. The upper surface is chan- 

 nelled. Below the terminal green leaves the shoot-axis is clothed 

 with the old leaves of previous years. "§ 



* Kirk (1899), p. 16. 

 t Henslow (1895), p. 144. 

 % Hooker (1867), p. 25. 

 § Cockayne (1903), p. 284. 



