Sanunculus.] J. RANUNCULACEiE. • ' 11 



shorter than the leaves and often very short. Flowers white, although soine- 

 tiraes appearing yellowish when dry. Sepals not above half as long as the 

 petals. Petals 5 to 10, obovate or oblong-cuneate, the glandular pit very 

 small, Achencs in a globular liead with a short recurved stvle ; receptacle 

 hairy, very short. 



Victoria, Gravelly places on most of tlie summits of the Australian Alps, F. Mueller, 



_4. R. anemoneus, F. MuelL in Trans, PJiil, Soc. Fid, I 97, and PI. 

 f[ict. 1. 7. ^. 1. A rather stout perennial, hirsute with long soft hairs, or 

 glabrous. Eootstock thick, with long clustered fibres, and bearing several 

 broad thin scales at the base of the leaves and steins. Radical leaves on long 

 pettoles of 5 to 10 in., nearly orbicular, 2 to 4 in. diameter, deeply divided 

 into 3 or 5 segments, w^hich are again digitately cut and lobed, the segments 

 overlapping each other so as to make the leaf appear peltate, the ultimate 

 lobes short and lanceolate. Stem 9 in. to 1 ft. high, 1- to 3-flowercd, with 

 a sessile, deeply-lobcd, nearly orbicular leaf at the base of each peduncle. 

 -Flowers large and white. Sepals 5 to 1, rarely more than half the length of 

 the petals. ^ Petals usually numerous, oblong-cuneate, often fin. long, the 

 glandular pit rather large. Carpels numerous, in a globular head, tapering 

 into a straight or scarcely hooked beak. 



Victoria. Along springs near the summits of the ^Tuuynng moimtains, F, Mueller. A 

 ^ery distinct species, allied in some reSpects to R, nivicola, from New Zealand, but readily 

 known by the sessile stem-leaves. 



5. R. Gunniauus, Hook, Jonrn. Bot, i. 2i4. i, 133. Eootstock thick, 

 sometimes horizontal or shortly creeping, with long fibres. Leaves all radical 

 and glabrous, or with a few long hairs, the petioles varying from 2 to 6 in., 

 pinnately divided at the top into crowded linear or linear-lanceolate segments, 

 ^st of them again once or twice divided, all thicker and firmer than in R. 

 Millani, mostly tipped by a small gland. Scapes leafless and 1 -flowered, 

 Jisually longer than the leaves, silky hairy, at least at the summit. Flowers rather 

 lai^e, yellow, but often, especially the sepals, pui^le outside. Sepals nearly 

 js long as the petals, glabrous. Petals 5. 6, or rarely more, cuneate-obloug, 

 |> to 9 lines long, usually with three glandular pits, the central one rather 

 longer than the other, but sometimes only 1 and occasionally 5 pits to each 

 petal Carpels numerous, in a globular head, with a conical triquetrous or 

 flattened beak, not hooked at the point.— Hook. f. FL Tasm. i. 6 ; F. Muell, 

 ^^•^ict. L 9. 



Victoria. Grassy places tlirougliout the greater portion of the Aa=traliaa Alps at an 

 Elevation of from 4500 to 7000 ft., F. Mueller. 

 ^j ^^P^ania. Hnmpshire hills. Western nionntains, Ben Lomoua, and as far north as 



Ti? 1 ' ^^^'^*^"^^' etc., at about -JtOOO ft. elevation, Laimncc, Gvnn. . , • 



Ane iarge loose grains of the aii)nmcn mentioned hy Hooker, do liot appear io be m their 

 othT 7>^^^*^ ; for 1 fmd the albumen of apparently quite ripe seeds, dense and fleshy as in 



6- R. dissectifoUus, F. Muell. Herb. Considered by F. Mueller as 

 "variety of R. lappa ecus, but it appears to me to be more nearly allied io_R. 

 ^tmniuuus, and although intermediate, as it were, between the two species, 

 yet separated from both by characters not to be neglected. Leaves divided 

 iito numerous linear lobes and segments, crowded at the top of the petiole. 



