Hanuncuiacea.] flora of Tasmania. 5 
petioles 1-2 inches long. Scape a span high, most hairy towards the top, bearing about the middle two opposite 
trifid cut involucral leaves £ inch long. Flower 1-1 J inch across, white.-This ven remarkable plant has hitherto 
been found only on mountains in the northern part of the Colony, and ma\ hrnce possibly oi-rur on the Alps of 
South Australia. It belongs to a section characterized by the form of the fruit, of « hi 
south as Java, and differs from that section to which the South African species belong. 
Genus III. RANUNCULUS, I. 
Sepala 4. Petala 5-10 (rarius 0), basi foveola v. squama nectarifera instruct*. Stamina plurima. 
Ovaria plurima, ovulo 1 erecto; stylo brevi simplici. CarpeUa in capitulum subglubosum dispoaita, ityfc 
subulato persistente 1 
Sepals imbricated, deciduous. Petals, five or more, rarely 0. Carpel* many, with one erect ovule and i 
simple short style.— Acrid herbs, with usually perennial roots, and both radical ind cauline leaves ; sometimes with 
The number of Ranunculi in Tasmania is unusually large, compared with the extent of the flora, ami the 
same remark applies to New Zealand; in Australia they are comparatively much less numerous. On the other band, 
it must be borne in mind that the specie* are very variable, and hence hadlv defined ; that several of the following 
each species from a few Localities only, at 1 hare done, but that each species should be observed under even 
variety of soil and locaHtj j to t hi. «■ wotaoM of the genus, all widely disponed 
over the globe, and only absent in low tropical localities. The persistence, and erect, spreading, or reflexed direction 
of the sepals, annual and perennial roots, position of the scale or pit on the p. tals, form of the carpels, and furrows 
on the peduncles, are all employed in framing specific characters, but 1 do not know to what extent these van in 
individual species. (Name from rasa, a frog ; many of the species growing in water.) 
§1. Batbachium. — Water plants. Flower* white. Carpels transversely rugose. 
1. Ranunculus aquatilis (Linn. Sp. PI. 781) ; fluitans, foliis submersis capillaceo-multifidis, emersis 
(dum adsunt) rotundato-reniformibus, petalis interdum nullis. — DC.Prodr.i. 26. (Gunn, 1938.) 
Hab. Lake River, Grindelwald, and Formosa, Gunn. — (Fl. Nov.) 
Disteib. South-eastern Australia. Europe, as far north as Iceland. Temperate Asia, from North 
India to Siberia and China. North Africa. Temperate North America, to the Polar Sea. 
A floating water-weed, with long, slender stems, submerged capillaeeo-multifid leaves, and occasionally tri- 
partite floating leaves, which however are not developed in the Australian and Tasmanian specimens. — This widely 
diffused plant has been examined by Dr. Thomson and myself with gTeat care, when comparing the Indian forms of 
it with the European. We have no hesitation in pronouncing it specifically the same; and though various authors 
depth of water, its permanence or intermittent Mipph, rapidity of cum nt. bottom soil, ami the innumerable other 
conditions under which it flourishes in this unstable element. There are literally no limits to the number of 
trifling differences in the foliage and flowers, which are seized upon to found species. 
§2. Hecatonia.— Root fibrous. Flowers yellow. Carpels smooth, in a globose head. 
a. Stem - h-rous. 
2. Ranunculus Gunnianus (Hook. Bot. Journ. i. 244. t. 133) ; pilosus, foliis omnibus radicalibus 
loDge petiolatis capillaceo-tripinnatisectis segmentis linearibus acuminatis, scapo robusto sericeo-piloso 
1-floro, flore amplo, sepalis lineari-oblongis obtusis, petalis consimilibus nervis majoribus infra medium 3- 
glanduliferis, carpellis in stylum rectum trigonum attenuatis. {Gunn, 276.) 
