Acad CHEE le 
Recorps oF OBSERVATIONS ON Sir Winn1am MacGrecor’s HicHianp-PLANTS FROM 
New Guinea, BY Baron von Mvuruurr, K.C.M.G., M.D., Ph.D., F.R.S. 
(Read Thursday, September 12, 1889.) 
I. Phytographic Expositions. 
Ranunculus amerophyllus; EF. v. M. 
Quite dwarf; root fibrillous; leaves very small, mostly basal, from ovate-to 
cuneate-lanceolar, entire or some distantly denticulated, as well as the petioles and 
peduncles imperfectly beset with rigid appressed hairlets ; flowers singly terminating 
the peduncular stems; fruitlets oblique-ovate or dimidiate-roundish, smooth, some- 
what turgid, their style much recurved. 
Mount Victoria, between small Hymenophyllum and dwarf Danthonia. Nearer 
related to R. Muelleri from the Australian Alps, than to the two species occurring in 
the Sunda Islands, namely R. Javanicus and R. diffusus, which grow at from 4000 to 
9000 feet elevation. So perhaps other Ranuncles may occur indigenously in New 
Guinea. I have been unable to identify this Papuan species with any from the 
Himalayas or from elsewhere. It differs from R. Muelleri, so far as from the few 
and flowerless specimens can be judged, in the remarkable smallness of all its parts 
and in the much recurved style. The degree of variability of these plants must 
however yet fully be ascertained hereafter, thus it would seem that R. dissectifolius 
is connected as a luxuriant variety with R. Muelleri. 
Drimys piperita ; J. Hooxsr, icones plantarum, t. 896 (1852). 
Mount Knutsford.—Only fruiting specimens could be obtained, but these 
precisely agree with the typical plant, discovered at a height of about 11,000 feet on 
Mount Kini-Balu of Northern Borneo by Sir Hugh Low. As many as eight fruitlets 
may be seen to proceed from one flower. 
Drimys Hatamensis ; Beccari, Malesia I. 185 (1877). 
Musgrave-Range, from 7000 feet upwards; near the summits of the Owen 
Stanley’s Ranges. 
To this species seem referable plants from the above noted localities. As might 
be expected, those from the cooler altitudes are reduced in size, their leaves thus often 
being shortened to rather less than one inch, and more recurved at the margin. 
Moreover it was shown already in 1860 (Plants of the Colony Victoria, p. 21) that D. 
