206 UMBELLIFERZ. [Oreomyrrms.. 
involucral bracts numerous, ovate or lanceolate. Calyx-teeth 
obsolete. Petals oblong, acute, with a short incurved tip. Fruit 
oblong or linear-oblong, usually tapering to the apex, slightly com- 
pressed laterally; carpels subterete, with 5 equal obtuse ribs, the 
2 lateral ones close to the commissure. Vittz 1 in each furrow 
and 2 on the commissural face. Seed nearly terete, but grooved 
on the commissural side. 
A genus of 5 or 6 species, all of which are natives of America, from Mexico. 
to the Falkland Islands, one of them extending to Australia and New Zealand. 
1. O. andicola, Endl. Gen. Plant. 787.—Exceedingly variable 
in stature and habit, 2-24in. high, either stemless with radical 
leaves and scapes or much branched from the base, with short or 
long slender sparingly divided leafy stems, glabrescent or tomentose- 
or pilose. Leaves usually numerous, mostly radical, 1-6 in. long, 
linear-oblong, pinnate or 2-pinnate ; leaflets pinnatifid or variously 
toothed or incised. Peduncles several, usually springing from the 
rootstocks, but in the branched varieties axillary as well, longer or 
shorter than the leaves, glabrescent or pilose, especially towards 
the tip, where the hairs are usually reversed. Umbels few- or 
many-flowered ; involucral bracts 6-8, ovate to linear. Flowers at 
first sessile, but pedicels lengthening as the fruit ripens, often un- 
equally so. Fruit linear- or ovate-oblong, glabrous or more or less. 
densely pubescent.—Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. ii. 288, t. 101; Benth. 
Fl. Austral. ii. 377; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 197. 
Var. Colensoi, Kirk, l.c. 198.—Leaves all radical, pinnate or 2-pinnate; 
leaflets pinnatifid or incised, ultimate segments acute. Scapes numerous,. 
simple. — O. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 92; Handb. N.Z. Fil. 91. O. 
Haastii, Hook. f. l.c. 
Var. rigida, Kirk, l.c.—Stems stout, branched at the base only, 4-8 in. 
high. Leaves 2-pinnate, pubescent or tomentose; leaflets pinnatifid or deeply 
incised. Scapes stout and rigid, often depressed. Fruits linear. 
Var. ramosa, Kirk, l.c.—Stems slender, much branched, often 2 ft. long. 
Leaves pinnate; leaflets membranous, distant, the lowest petioled, deeply 
3-5-lobed or -partite or again pinnate, ultimate segments obtuse or subacute. 
Peduncles axillary, longer or shorter than the leaves, 3—S-flowered; pedicels 
unequal, sometimes 2in. long. Fruits glabrous or pubescent.—O. ramosa, 
Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 91. Mr. Kirk’s var. apiculata appears to be a form 
of this. 
NortH AND SoutH IsLanps, CHATHAM IsLANDS: Abundant from the East 
Cape southwards. Sea-level to 4500 ft. November—February. Also in. 
Australia and Tasmania and in South America. 
I have followed Mr. Bentham and the ‘‘ Index Kewensis’’ in uniting the 
three New Zealand species described by Hooker with the American and Aus- 
tralian O. andicola. Any large series of specimens will show that the develop-. 
ment or non-development of a branched stem, and the amount of pubescence, 
which were the characters relied upon for the separation of the species, are in 
Oreomyrrhis far too variable and inconstant to be employed for that pur- 
pose. 
