MACLOSKIE : RANUNCULACE^E. 403 



2. MYOSURUS GRACILIS (Speg., var. of M. aristatus] Macl. 



Plate XXI, M. 



Diminutive and slender, 5-15 mm. high, with slender root, stem pro- 

 duced into 3-10 long, subsimple branches. Leaves few (4-8), the coty- 

 ledons persisting, all linear-oblong or spatulate, attenuate downwards, 

 entire, obtuse, obscurely i-3~nerved, glabrous, 5-20 mm. long by 0.5 mm. 

 broad. Scape-like branches 1-3, erect, straight, exceeding the leaves, 

 slender, glabrous and scarcely thickened above. Flowers small, ochro- 

 leucous. Sepals 3, green, linear-spatulate, erect, obtuse, i -nerved, gla- 

 brous, spur two thirds as long. Petals 5, white, spatulate, attenuate 

 downward, obtuse, i -nerved, with 2 narrower staminodes. Stamens 3-5, 

 two of them being sterile and petaloid, filaments as long as the petals. 



Spike of achenes oblong, obtuse, less than 4 mm. long and two thirds 

 mm. thick. Carpels rhombic-ovate on the back, tipped with a short, blunt, 

 erect style, the pericarp very thin on the back, except a stout, opaque 

 median line or ridge and a similar margin, the interveining part trans- 

 parent and in maturity, showing the rather large seed, easily rupturing. 

 Seed oval, sinuately rugulose. 



Patagonia, by Rio Sta. Cruz and San Julian, near shrubberies. By 

 Hatcher at Coy Inlet (showing the hypocotyl elongated above the roots). 

 "Would make a new species," Spegazzini. Prof. Edward L. Greene, to 

 whom we are indebted for the description of the fruit-head, states that 

 "it is not at all nearly related to M. aristatus; it is a particularly well 

 marked new species." 



3. M. PATAGONICUS Speg. 



Robust, cespitose. Leaves linear, peduncles thickened upwards. 

 Sepals 5, with spur half their length. Petals none. Stamens 10. 

 Carpels ventrally with capitate hairs. Fruiting spike elongated. Stylar 

 mucro rather short. 



Patagon. ; in marshes by Golfo de San Jorge, and at La Plata Bo- 

 tanic Garden in soil from Rio Sta. Cruz. 



5. OXYGRAPHIS Bunge. 



Differing from Myosurus by having seeds erect, petals with a small 

 basal nectary but spurless ; from Rammcuhis by having the achenes with- 

 out a hard pericarp. Sepals mostly 5 ; and petals 5-12. 



