140 RANUNCULUS STEVENI ANDRZ. AND R. ACRIS L. 



solitary :— male, near the tips of the branches, perianth mem- 

 branous, shortly pedunculate, minutely papillose, 5-cleft, segments 

 incurved at the tips, stamens 5, exserted : — female, near the base of 

 the branches ^ in. long, sessile, perianth urceolate, farinose, 

 2-tipped, stigmas 2. Seed rounded, much compressed, puncti- 

 culate, adhering to the utricle. 



Hab. New Zealand ; North Island, Port Nicholson, J, Buchanan^ 

 T.K.; South Island, The Brothers Rocks, Nelson, Maniototo 

 Plains, Otago (1800 ft.), D- Petrie, T.K. ; Centre Island, Foveaux 

 Strait, T.K. 



RANUNCULUS STEVENI Andrz. and R, ACRIS L. 

 By Frederick Townsend, M.P., M.A., F.L.S. 



A. Kerner, in his ' Schedae ad Floram Exsiccatatam Austro- 

 Hungaricam ' (1888), refers the forms of Ranunculus which with 

 many botanists pass for R. acris L. to two species — Ranunculus 

 Steveni Andrz. and R. acris L. The forms which may be referred 

 to these have been thrown into confusion, in the first place by 

 Linnseus having erroneously named his plant with creeping root 

 R. sylvaticus Thuill., and secondly by Jordan and other French 

 botanists having placed Linnaeus' s R. acris with R. Steveni Andrz. 

 Kerner endeavours to disentangle the web of confusion, and, as 

 many English botanists are unlikely to have access to the ' Schedae,' 

 I have thought to put them in possession of Kerner' s arrangement 

 and remarks by a short paper. 



R. Steveni Andrz. in Bess. Supplem. iii. ad Catal. Plant. Hort. 

 Botan. Gymnas. Volhyn. Cult. 1814, p. 19. — This form is dis- 

 tinguished by its long fleshy rhizoma, covered above with the 

 fibrous remains of the bases of former petioles, and by the shining 

 pubescence of its leaves. He describes three varieties : — 



1. Form with long horizontal creeping rhizoma, and very short 

 and straight-beaked carpels. = R. Friesianus Jord. 



2. Form with long horizontal creeping rhizoma, and with 

 decidedly hook-beaked carpels. = R. vulgatus Jord. in Boreau Fl. 

 du Centre, ed. 3 (1857), p. 15. = R. Steveni Freyn. in Willk. et 

 Lange Prod. Fl. Hisp. 



8. Form with short, sharply-ascending rhizoma, and short and 

 straight-beaked carpels. = R. acris Jord. Observ. fasc. 6 (1846). 



This last form Kerner says is cultivated in the Botanical 

 Gardens of Prague (where the normal form. No. 1, is named R, 

 Serhicus), but he thinks it possesses rhizoma characters which may 

 place it elsewhere, possibly as an intermediate form approaching 

 R. acns L. 



He says R. Constantinopolitanus of the Siebenbiirger botanists, 

 = R. Steveni var. jjseudolamiginosus Bolle, is an extreme form, the 

 divisions of the leaves being broad and obovate. Intermediate 

 forms are Li. sylvaticus Fries (non Thuill.). Jordan first described 

 this as R. Friesianus, but afterwards changed the name to neinori- 



