Ranunculus.] RANUNCULACESS. 25, 
The usual form of this species, with very long petioles and broad leaf-seg- 
ments, has a very distinct appearance ; but small varieties are difficult to dis- 
tinguish from R. rivularis, var. major. Mr. Colenso’s R. longipetiolatus, judg- 
ing from the specimens in his herbarium, cannot be separated even as a. 
variety. 
33. R. rivularis, Banks and Sol. ex Forst. Prodr.n.524.—Smooth,. 
perfectly glabrous in all its parts. Stems creeping, often branched 
and forming broad matted patches, rooting at the nodes and giving 
off tufts of radical leaves and erect peduncles or weak sparingly 
branched flowering-stems, or floating and irregularly branched. 
Leaves on slender petioles 1-6in. long; blade +-14in. diam., 
ovate semicircular or reniform in outline, usually 3-7-partite to the 
base ; segments varying from cuneate to narrow-linear, more or less. 
deeply cut at the apex, sometimes to the middle, occasionally ter- 
natisect, rarely entire. Peduncles usually longer than the leaves. 
Flowers yellow, }-2in. diam. Sepals 5, spreading. Petals 5-10, 
linear-oblong, usually longer than the sepals; gland some distance 
above the base. Achenes turgid, glabrous, sometimes rugose from 
the shrivelling of the epicarp; style rather long, subulate, straight 
or recurved.—A. Cunn. Precur.n. 630; Raoul, Choia de Plantes, 47 ; 
Hook. f. Fi. Nov. Zel. i. 11; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 8; Kirk, Students’ 
Fil. 18. 
Var, major, Benth. Fl. Austral. i. 14.—Suberect, 3-12in. high. Leaves 
tufted ; segments often very narrow and much cut.—R. incisus, Hook. f. Fl. 
Nov, Zel. i. 10, t. 4. R. amphitricha, Colenso in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885): 
237. 
Var. subfluitans, Benth. J.c.—Creeping or partially floating. Leaves 
smaller, less divided. Flowers and achenes smaller.—R. inundatus, R. Br. ex 
D.C. Syst. i. 269; Hook. f. Fl. Tusm. i. 8. 
Var. inconspicuus, Benth. l.c.—Smaller, more slender, suberect. Leaf- 
segments 3 fid. Flowers smaller.-—R. inconspicuus, Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 8, 
t. 2B. 
NortH, SourH, STEWART, AND CHaTHAM IsLANDS: Common in swamps. 
and streams, &c., ascending to 2500 ft. Var. inconspicwus : Penearrow Lagoon, 
near Wellington, Kirk! Otago, Petrie! October—March. Also plentiful 
in Australia. 
A most abundant little plant, exceedingly variable in most of its characters,. 
and particularly so in the extent to which the leaves are divided, and the width 
or narrowness of the ultimate segments. Stock-owners consider it to be highly 
poisonous, and attribute to it many deaths occurring among cattle feeding in 
swamps in dry summers. 
34. R. acaulis, Banks and Sol. ex D.C. Syst. 1. 270.—Small,. 
dark-green, fleshy, perfectly glabrous, sending out creeping stolons 
and often forming broad matted patches. Leaves all radical, on 
slender petioles 1-3in. long; blade 4-in. diam., trifoliolate or 
deeply 3-lobed; leaflets or segments sessile, obovate or oblong, 
obtuse, entire or 2-3-lobed. Scapes shorter than the leaves, naked, 
1-flowered. Flowers small, +-+in.diam. Sepals 5, roundish-ovate,. 
