Bammcuhi,.] 1. RANUNCULACE^. 7 



Sect. 1. Kecatonlai — Carpels smooth. Perennials {In Attstmlia) with a tufted rootstock, 

 or creeping or floating stolons. Flowers white or yellow. 



Eadical leaves pinnate, with flat segments or digitate. Flowers yellow. 

 Stems tufted or erect or decumbent, without stolpns. Petals usually 5. 

 Calyx appressed or spreading, not reflexed. 

 Carpels with a much recurved point. Plant hispid, or silky hairy, or 

 nearly glabrous. Leaves pinnatiseot, or 3- to 5-lobed, or entire . . 1. 22. lappaceus. 

 Calyx reflexed. Stem weak, hirsute. Leaves not pinnate. Flowers , ,,,, , 



small 2. JJ. plebeius. 



Stems creeping, floating, or stoloniferous. Plant glabrous or nearly so. , 



Leaves digitate. Petals usually 6 to 10 3. R. rivuldris. 



Sect. 2. Ecllinella. — Carpels tuberculate or muricate or hispid on the sides. Annuals. 

 Flowers yellow. 



Flowers lateral, sessile, or on peduncles shorter than the leaves. 



Hairy plant, with very smaU flowers, often sessile. Carpels usually about , 



1 line long, with a small recurved point 4. iJ. parvi/lorus. 



1. B>. lappaceus (burdock-like), Sm.; DC. Prod. i. 89 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 12. 

 A perennial, more or less clothed with soft spreading or rarely silky and appressed 

 hairs. Rootstock short, with long fibres and no stolons. Leaves chiefly radical, 

 on long petioles, usually divided into 3 or 5 deep lobes or segments, ovate or 

 rhomboid-cuneate, either pinnately distinct or, if confluent, almost palmate, 

 although the middle lobe is generally longer than the lateral ones, each lobe or 

 segment is often again lobed or toothed and sometimes much cut into narrow 

 lobes, more rarely the leaves are all entire or shortly 3-lobed. Flowering stems 

 either a leafless 1 -flowered scape or branching and, erect or decumbent, bearing 

 several flowers and a few leaves, smaller and less divided than the radical ones. 

 Flowers of a rich yellow. Sepals hairy or rarely glabrous, usually rauch shorter 

 than the petals, appressed or open, but not closely reflexed. Petals usually 5, 

 broadly obovate and rather large, with a small glandular pit near the base. Car- 

 pels in a globular head, compressed or rarely turgid, glabrous and smopth, with a 

 recurved style, usually short, but longer and slender in some western specimens. — 

 Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 6 ; F. Muell. PI. Vict. ^i. 7 ; R. colonorum, Endl. in Hueg. 

 Enum. 1 ; R. discolor, Steud. in PI. Preiss. i. 263 (calyx certainly not reflexed). 



Hab.: On the ranges about the Brisbane Eiver. Flowering during the winter and spring 

 months. 



Var. pimpinellifoliits, forma multiplex. Double buttercup. 



This form of our common buttercup has been found by Miss Cameron near Ormiston, Cleyeland 

 railway line, and by Miss Schneider, Ngrang. The meeting with so-called double flowers amongst 

 wild plants is by no means commoil, and when of compact habit and well formed flowers such 

 as the one now under notice are a feal boon to the horticulturist. The flowers of the present 

 plant closely resemble those of the Bachelor's Button, so common in the gardens around London, 

 which is a form of R. bulbosus. 



2. It. plebeius (common), R. Br. in DC. Syst. Veg. i. 288 ; Benth. EL Austr. 

 i. 13. Hirsute with spreading or rarely nearly appressed hairs. Radical leaves 

 on long petioles, digitately divided into 3 deeply lobed and toothed cuneate or 

 rhomboid segments. Stems weak, decumbent or erect, often above a foot long 

 and branched, with a tew leaves, the lower ones more divided than the radical 

 ones, with the primary segments petiolate,; the others smaller, more sessile, and 

 less cut. Flowers several, small,, on long peduncles- Calyx, reflexed, shorter 

 than the petals, very deciduous. Petals obovate or oblong, seldom above 2 lines 

 long. Achenes few or numerous, more or less compressed, rather small, with a 

 hooked or recurved slender style. — Steud. in PL Preiss. i. 263 : R. Iiirtus, Banks 

 and Sol. in DC. Syst. Veg. i. 289 ; F. Muell. PI. Yic. i. 8. 



Hab^: Southern Queensland. 



3. R, rivularis (river kind), Banks and Sol. in DC. Syst. Veg. i. 270 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 13. Stems creeping or stoloniferous, producing at every node 

 tufts of radical leaves and erect scapes, or weak slightly branched flowering stems, 

 rarely forming short thick rhizomes. Leaves on long petioles, digitately divided 



