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o — ""-O 



bicular, the lower ones often only 3- or 5-lobe(l, but mostly divided into 

 three segments, either entire or 3-lobed, or again cut into narrow segments. 

 Flowers small, leaf-opposed, sessile, or on short slender peduncles. Sepals 

 rarely above 1 line long and very deciduous. Petals 5 or fewer, seldom raucn 

 longer than the calyx. Achenes in a small globular head, much compressed, 

 with a smooth margin, seldom much exceeding a line in breadth in Australian 

 specimens, the sides covcr.'d witli short hairs, or tubercles, or short hooked 

 bristles, the style formiug usually a very short recurved point, more rarely 

 tigid and dilated at the hase.^r. Muell.'n. Vict. i. 9 ; R. sessillflorus, R- Br- 

 in DC. Syst. Teg. i. 302 ; Hook. f. Y\. Tasm. i. 9 ; R. collinus, K. Br. 1. c 

 J. 271 ; R. pumdio, E. Br. 1. c. i. 271 ; Hook. f. PI. Tasm. i. 10 ; R. lejitocau- 

 hs. Hook. Journ. Bot. L 244 ; R. piluUfer, Hook. Ic. PL t. 600. 



Queensland. In water-holes on the tops of the ranges in the interior, Mitchell. 

 f": S. "Wales. Moist pastures and hanks of rivers and lagoons. R. Brown and others. 

 Victoria. Common in similar stations, F. Mueller. 



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14 I. kanunculace.t:. [Ranunculus* 



usually small, the sepals notreflexed. Petals 6 to 10, about twice as long as 

 the sepals, or 5 only in sraaU-flowered varieties, iiarrovv-oblong. Achenes 

 rather small and broad, with a firm or slender recurved or rarely nearly 

 straight point, not tubcrclcd or muricate. — F. MuclL PL Yiet. i. 8. 



Queensland- Moreton Bay, IF. Hill, 



Itf. S. "Whales. Abundant about Port Jacksou, llerh, Ilooher, 



Victoria, In swamps, rivulets, marshes, or inundated places' from the coast to the 

 hi^trher Alps, as well in brackish as in fresh water, F. Mueller. 



Tasmania. Abundant in wet places, sometimes growing in deep water, J". -D. Ilooher, 

 Gunn. 



S. Australia. In swampy lands, Behr. ; extending to the Darling and St. Vincent s 

 Gulf, but rare in the Colony, F, Mueller, 

 . This very variable species is recognizable in perfect specimens by its creeping or floating 

 stolons ; where these are wanting, the glabrous digitate leaves and narrow petals are the 

 best marks of distinction from the R. lappaceus. The following are the most marked forms 

 it assumes, 



Var. major. Tufts erect. Leaf-segments 4 to 1 in. long or more, often very narrow ana 

 much cut, on petioles of 2 to 6 inches. Plowers rather large.— Z?. immdatus, R. 13r. m 

 DC, Syst. Veg. 1, 269. R, glabrifolius, Tlook. Journ. Bot. i. 243 ; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. L 9. 

 K. inci^us. Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zeal. 1, 10. t. 4. 



Var. subfuitans. Very slender and creeping, or half floating in large masses, with small 

 leaves, not nuich divided, and small flowers and acLcnes. — R. rivulans. Banks and Sol. in 

 DC. Syst. Veg. i. 270. R. inundatus. Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 8. * 



Var, inconspiciius. Still smaller, with very small flowers. — R, inconspicuusy Hook. f. Fl* 

 Tasm. i. 9. t. 2 B ; Gunn, n. 1018, 1019. — An alpine form, which in the dried state might 

 be confounded with some of the minute specimens of R. lappaceiis nanv.s. 



Tbe New Zealand specimens appear -identical with the Australian ones. The nearest ap- 

 proach to it in other countries is the Antarctic-American R. hiiervatus^ Sm.; but that 

 has bitcrnate petiolate leaf-scguicnts, and thick broad, almost reniform achenes, very ^ 

 dilferent from those of any Australian specimens I have seen. R, acaniis, Banks, from 

 New Zealand and from Auckland Islands, referred to R. rividaris by F. Mueller, comes cer- 

 tainly near to the var. inconspicaus, but appears to me to be distinct, although perhaps a \ 

 reduced form of R. hiternatus. The New Zealand R. macropus. Hook., is also supposed hy 

 F. Jfucller to be a variety of R. rividaris, but is too difl*erent in several points to be admitted 

 without having seen connecting specimens. 



11. H* parviflorus^ Linn.; DC. Prod, i. 43: var. australis. A 

 slender hairy annual, either with tufted erect stems of a few inches, or weak, 

 procumbent, and lenstheninf^ to a foot or even more. Leaves small, or- 



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