RANUNCULACE^. 7 



In damp spots on the open downs, quite common. 

 Pulneys : above and round Kodaikanal. Nilgiris : all over the 

 plateau. Koondahs. Fyson 318. Bourne 19, 5124. 



Gen. Dist. On the mountains of South India only. Its nearest ally 

 appears to be R. sagittifolius Hook, of Ceylon which difiers in the much 

 more cordate base of the leaf; and it links that species with R. lingua L. 

 (^Etig. Great Spearwort ; Fr. Douve ; Ger. Yungen Ilahenfuss) which 

 occurs in Kashmir and the Western Himalayas, 



Ranunculus subpinnatus Wight and Arnott ; Herh. 

 Wight Prop. ! ; F.B.I, i 19, included in R. diffusus DC. ; VII 

 15^^; an erect, tufted, glossy plant with large yellow 

 flowers. Roots thick, white. Leaves mostly radical : 

 petiole 2 to 5 inches with large sheathing base : blade 

 divided into three or five distinct leaflets, glossy and some- 

 times almost glabrous on the upper side, often densely 

 pilose below ; each divided more or less completely into 

 three wedge-shaped segments, themselves cut and 

 toothed, the ultimate teeth with hardened tips pointing 

 rather forwards. Flowering stems a foot high, hairy ; the 

 lower leaves like the radical ones ; the upper smaller 

 and with only three leaflets ; branches 2 to 4 inches, 

 spreading. Flowers ^ to I inch, petals round, with 

 numerous parallel veins. Achenes not as thick as broad, 

 with distinct margin and finely pitted centre, t. 5. 

 Wight Ic. t. 49. 



Nilgiris : Ootacamund fir. July. Bourne 4601. Wight. 



* var evershedcB leaves smaller and more delicate. Pulneys : 

 on the bank of the stream which flows down the Fairy falls 

 above Kodaikanal ; flowering in summer. 



The species was included in the F.B.I, under R. diffusus D.C.^ a 

 species founded on a Nepal plant of Wallich's. I have not seen De 

 CandoUe's type sheet, but Wallich's R. diffusus DC. in Herb. Hook, at Kew, 

 is clearly a diffuse plant rooting at the nodes and with small, apparently 

 white, flowers on leaf opposed peduncles, in habit therefore much more like 

 R. wallichianus IV.cf-A. Wight's R. subpinnatus JV.&'A. collected on 

 the Nilgiris is a sturdier plant, tot rooting at the nodes. I have, therefore, 

 retained Wight and Arnott's name. The Pulney plant has the same 

 hardened tips to the teeth of the leaves and the same loosely appressed 

 hairs on the peduncle, but is so much more delicate in foliage and has so 

 much more markedly radical tufted leaves, that while including it under 



