364 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



The more rigid-leaved forms are commoner westward. In New Eno-- 

 land and New York occurs the opposite extreme, with soft and flaccid 

 leaves, commonly with longer divisions, which collapse completely on 

 being drawn out of the water. Among the several names which may 

 be taken up for it, H. Jlaccidus, Pars., is probably the oldest, and 

 li. submersus, Godron, the latest. 



•h- -f— No submersed dissected leaves: carpel-receptacle glabrous. 



R. HEDERACEUS, L. Collected in the year 1870, by Mr. J. M. M. 

 Muir, in fresh-water marshes at Norfolk, Virginia, said to be " appar- 

 ently indigenous at many stations." But, as it nowhere else occurs, it 

 was probably introduced from Europe. 



* * Styles long and filiform, with small terminal stigma : receptacle 

 glabrous : petals not deciduous : submersed leaves very few or 

 none. 



R. LoBBii, Hiern in Seem. Jour. Bot. ix. C6, t. 114, as subspecies. 

 Hiern has in general well indicated the characters of this very rare 

 species of California, and probably of Oregon, (which Torrey had re- 

 ferred to R. hederaceus, comparing it with H. tripariitus,) having 

 noted the stamens as only 5 to 9, and the carpels as 4 to 6, with the 

 " style slender, usually long and curved." He adds " lateral," which 

 is not the case in the flower, nor indeed at a later period. But he did 

 not perceive how completely distinct and peculiar this species is in 

 its style of thrice the length of the ovary from which it abruptly 

 proceeds, straight (not "curved"), of same thickness from base to 

 apex, where it bears a small and wholly terminal stigma ; also, that 

 the few akenes are enclosed in the marcescent-persistent sejjals quite 

 to maturity. The style withers away, only its base remaining as a tip 

 to the akene. So far as known, the California jjiant, of only Bigelow's 

 collection, shows neither roots nor submersed leaves. I have not seen 

 Lobb's plant, from Oregon, from which some filiform-dissected leaves 

 are figured ; and Bigelow's does not bear akenes with such strongly 

 ascending and continuous lines on the faces of the akene as are shown 

 in Hiern's fig. 9. 



§ 2. OxYGKAPHis. Sepals herbaceous and persistent : carpels 

 utricular. — In view of the two following sections and the great 

 diversity in the texture of the carpels in other parts of the genus, 

 there is not much doubt that Oxygraphis of Bunge should be re- 

 manded to Ranunculus. If the fruiting carpels are truly " a dorso 

 compressa," the genus may perhaps be retained, since they seem to 

 have a certain likeness to those of Myosurus, especially to those of 



