394 Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batracldan Ranunculi. 



is the smallest, at the succeeding forks they are more and more 

 approximate. Petioles semicylindrical, short. Upper submersed 

 leaves sessile. Floating leaves usually flat, with bifid leaflets, 

 each segment deeply lobed ; when they rise out of the water, as 

 is frequently the case, they form a nearly or quite circular disk ; 

 their outer edge is usually straight from its base, but occasion- 

 ally is slightly rounded from thence. Stipules broad, adnate 

 nearly throughout. Peduncles from both kinds of leaves. Buds 

 globular, or slightly depressed and obscurely pentagonal. Flowers 

 becoming star-like. Sepals ovate, very blunt, convex, brownish 

 green towards the top with a dark irregular edge, yellowish at 

 the base, the whole margin diaphanous. Petals sometimes with 

 more than nine nerves, white, yellow below, fully twice as long 

 as the calyx. Nectary round, very prominent, bracket- shaped, 

 so as to open nearly at right angles to the plane of the petal. 

 Stamens many, exceeding the pistils. Style prolonging the 

 inner edge of the ovary, curved. Stigma straight. Carpels 

 blunt with a large apiculus, slightly hairy at the end, inner 

 edge nearly straight. 



When the floating leaves are not produced, the plant is simi- 

 lar in all other respects. Both states are frequently to be found 

 in the same place. 



The difi'erences between this plant and R. trichophyllus and 

 R. Drouetii have been already pointed out. Its collapsing leaves 

 distinguish it from the four following species. Its uniformly 

 thick and short peduncles separate it from R. confusus, R. Bau- 

 dotii and R. peltatus ; its wedge-shaped leaflets from R. confusus, 

 R. floribundus and R. peltatus. In swift streams it sometimes 

 much resembles R. fluitans, but has not the structure of that 

 plant. 



Flowering from May to July ; rarely flowers may be found in 

 April and August. 



I have obtained this plant from Cambridgeshire, Leicester- 

 shire, Chichester, the River Lea near Hertford, Battersea in 

 Surrey, and Pangbourn in Berkshire. I believe it to be pretty 

 generally distributed. 



4. R. confusus (Godr.) ; submersed leaves loosely trifurcate, seg- 

 ments long rather rigid not collapsing, floating leaves long- 

 stalked subpeltate subtripartite with sessile obovate 3-5-lobed 

 segments, peduncles slender narrowing gradually exceeding 

 the leaves, flowers large, petals obovate-cuneate 7-9-nerved 

 not contiguous persistent, stigma tongue-shaped, receptacle 

 ovate-conical, carpels ^ -ovate compressed and narrowed up- 

 wards, 



II. confusus, Go Jr. in Ft. de Fr. i. 22. 



