4 RaminculacecB. {Ranunculus, 



cous and veined beneath ; panicle small, fls. few ; achenes 

 strongly ribbed, beaked with a hooked point. 



Upper montane zone ; common. Nuwara Eliya ; Dimbula ; Horton 

 Plains ; &c. Fl. Jan.-April ; white. 



On all the higher mountains of India and Java. 



5. RANUNCUXiUS, L. 



Perennial herbs ; 1. few or solitary ; sep. 5, imbricate, 



caducous; pet. 5, spreading; stam. numerous; carp, numerous, 



ovule solitary, erect ; fruit a head of beaked achenes. — Sp. 



about 160 ; 21 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Leaves not divided i. R. SAGITTIFOLIUS. 



Leaves much divided 2. R. Wallichianus, 



1. R. sag-ittifolius, Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 173 (1837). 



R. hastatus. Walker in Wight, 111. i. 5. Thw. Enum. i. C. P. 520. 

 Fl. B. Ind. i. 17. Hook. Ic. (from a Ceylon specimen). 



A perennial herb with a horizontal or ascending rootstock ; 

 1. mostly radical on very long hairy petioles, cordate-oblong, 

 obtuse, base strongly sagittate with rounded lobes, crenate, 

 glabrous above, hairy on the veins beneath ; flowering stem 

 erect, 2-3 ft. high, smooth, branched ; cauline leaves few, 

 oblong or linear, inciso-dentate ; fl. fin. diam. ; pet. 5, nearly 

 orbicular ; carpels in a globose head, smooth, keeled on the 

 back, with a short incurved beak. 



Upper montane zone, in wet or marshy places, common, especially at 

 Horton Plains and N. Eliya. Fl. May, June, Sept. ; bright yellow. 



Endemic. 



This is the ' Buttercup ' of the hills. 



2. R. Wallichianus, W. &^ A. Prod. i. 4 (1834). 



R. zeyhinicus, Moon Cat. 43 (.'') R. pinnatics. Am. Pug. 4. Thw, 

 Enum. I. C. P. 1012. 



Fl, B. Ind. i. 20. Wight, Ic. t. 937. 



A perennial stoloniferous herb, rooting at the nodes of the 

 long prostrate branches ; 1, on long hairy petioles ternatisect 

 or nearly trifoliolate, the segments or Iflts. tripartite, deeply 

 cut or toothed at the ends, with long silky hairs on both 

 surfaces ; fl. solitary on long hairy peduncles opposite the 

 leaves, small, }r-h in. wide ; sep. reflexed ; pet. broadly oval ; 

 achenes few, much flattened on the sides, margined, glabrous, 

 the sides usually tuberculated, but sometimes quite smooth, 

 terminating in a short hooked beak. 



Damp shady places in upper montane zone ; common. Horton Plains ; 

 Pedurutalagala ; Haputale ; Nuwara Eliya ; Ella, Uva. Fl. April 

 September ; yellow, inconspicuous. 



Also in the Nilgiri Hills of S. India. 



I suppose this to be Moon's A', zcyhiniciis which he collected in Uva ; 

 but I have seen no specimens from him. 



