January 31, 1910 1 1 



Ranunculus ultramontanus (Greene) 

 Ranunculus occidentalis var. ultramontanus Greene, Pit- 



tonia \\\ 13. 1896. 



This was originally described from material obtained on 

 ''banks of streams and lakes, or in moist meadow lands along 

 the Trnckee river, at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, 

 Calif." It is not uncommon along the Trnckee in the vicinity 

 of Reno, and has been found in Washoe valley between Reno 

 and Carson, and on the slopes of the Sierra southwest of Reno, 

 at an elevation of 6500 feet, in a wet mountain meadow. The 

 type of R. occidentalis was collected on "plains of the Oregon 

 River, near woods," by Nuttall, and the type, or a co-type is in 

 the Torrey Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden. It 

 was described as "hirsute with shining spreading hairs; leaves 

 trifid or 3-parted; segments cuneate and trifid, or incisely toothed, 

 the lateral ones often subdivided; the uppermost leaves trifid, 

 with linear acnte segments; stem divaricate, many flowered; 

 sepals reflexed, half as long as the elliptical-oblong petals; car- 

 pels smooth, much compressed, with the revolute style nearly 

 their own length." Mr. E. P. Sheldon has distributed speci- 

 mens of fairly typical^, occidentalism no. 10104, from the Dalles, 

 Oregon. As described by Dr. Greene, our plant is distinct from 

 R. occidentalis, differing in having leaves of another shape cut 

 into long and narrow segments; is obviously pubescent only be- 

 low instead of strongly so even to the sepals; has a much smaller 

 flower, and much smaller acheneswith shorter, less curved style. 



Besides true Ranunculus, several of the segregates also oc- 

 cur in Nevada, among them one or more species of Batrachium, 

 with white flowers and finely dissected leaves. Halerpestes 

 Cymbalaria is fairly common, usually in alkaline soil. Beck- 

 withia Anderson ii is found on the slopes of the Sierra near Reno. 



