DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AND RARE INDIAN PLANTS. 85 
Var. y. siKaRAMENsIs P. B.; leaf segments tripartite or trisect, often subpinnately cut 
flowering p'ant 2—12 cm. high; inflorescence 1-, more rarely 2-flowered; style 
$ to š the length of the ovary. Sikaram, 12,600’ (Айс N). 
Subspecies III. намілвехыв, P. B.; root-fibres slender, cylindric or fusiform; leaves twice 
trisect; segments of the first order long-, of the second order short-petioluled, the latter deeply cleft, 
lacinim narrow-oblong, obtuse or rounded, small; ovaries broadly semi-ovate, glabrous; style about 
i the length of the ovary. Kurrum, on the mountains bordering the Hariab valley, 10,000’ 
(Collett !). Flowers in May. 
Ртлтв 110. (A) Ranunculus Aucheri, Boissier, subsp. typicus, var. persicus, (B) R. Aucheri, subsp. typicus, var. 
sikaramensis. (C) Е. Aucheri, subsp. hariabensis. 1, sepal of R. hariabensis; 2, nectarial staminodes of (A) (В), 
(С); 3,stamen of В. hariabensis; 4, pistils of (A), (B), (C). 
RANUNCULUS AFGHANICUS, Aitch. et Hemsl, 
Thicker root-fibres stout-filiform or fusiform; flowering stem 5—25 cm. high, silky 
villose; basal leaves rather long-petioled, blade reniform, cordate, 1:5—3 cm. across, 
trilobed to about $ to $, glabrous; middle lobe cuneate-obovate, lateral ones trapezoidal, 
much broader, unequally bilobed; lobes and lobules crenate; inflorescence one-to many- 
flowered; peduncles patulous or ascending; bracts trisect, segments linear or oblanceolate, 
obtuse; sepals patent, elliptic or obovate-oblong, villose; nectariferous staminodes about 
1 em. long, at least twice as long as the sepals and androgynoecium, broadly asymmetric- 
ally obtriangular, like the sepals persistent (always?); nectarial scale free, conspicuous, ob- 
triangular; filaments and anthers linear; pistils numerous, 1:5—2 mm. long, compressed, 
broadly semi-ovate; glabrous or sparsely beset with stiff hairs, dorsal nerve little 
remote from the margin; style about 4 as long as the ovary, emergiog from it rather 
abruptly; achene compressed, semi-obovate, very convex dorsally, style hooked, much 
shorter than the achene proper, | 
Flowres in June. 
Afghanistan: Kurrum valley: on grass-meadows. Karchatal 10,500’ (Aitch./); mountains of 
the Hariab valley, 8—9,000” (Coldett 1). 
Regel’s description of his Ranunculus Olge (1882) from Autshi-Dagana, Turkistan, agrees 
entirely with that of the Afghan specimen of R. afghanicus. 
Р лтЕ 1104. Ranunculus afghanicus, Aitch. et Hemsl. 1, Tall; 2, dwarf specimen; 3, sepals; 4, nectarial 
staminodes; б, stamen; 6, pistils; 7, pistil of В. Sprunnerianus, Boiss.; 8, achene of the samo. 
CALATHODES PALMATA H. f. её T. 
The genus Calathodes has been redused by Baillon and Prantl to the rank of а subspecies 
of Trollius. And, indeed, as long as the generic separation had to be chiefly based on the presence 
or absence of the so-called petals, and as the latter are sometimes reduced to three in Trollius 
pumilus, the reduction of Calathodes to Trollius appeared unavoidable. Recently, however, ripe fruits 
of Calathodes palmata have been gathered, and their examination shows that Calathodes is really a 
good genus. For it is found that in the latter genus the torus elongates after flowering by an 
interstitial growth of the tissues between the insertion of the sepals and that of the carpels. That 
we have not to deal with a coalescence of fruit-stalks, as has been supposed, is clearly proved by a 
cross-section through the elongating part of the torus (see fig. 12 of plate 112). In the Western 
Chinese plants the ovaries have a wing-shaped cellular outgrowth near their base, the lower portion 
