6 PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO [. Ranunculace®. 
orbicular-cuneate or round, longer than the calyx; receptacle globose, hairy; carpels oblique-ovate, with a 
short or an obliterated style. 
In lakes, swamps and livers, as well of fresh as of brackish water, over the greater part of the world. 
Within our colony in Bacchus Marsh, the Murray, Mitta Mitta, &c. Not found in tropical Australia. 
Stem obtusangular, branched, when submersed throwing out long fibrous roots from its lower joints. 
Bloating leaves generally less rarely more than one inch broad; sometimes peltate, with blunt rarely 
stalked divisions. Submersed leaves |-2 inches long. Petioles, particularly of the upper leaves, dilated at 
the base into broad adnate, often hairy, membranes, which are sometimes fully half an inch long. Peduncles 
measuring 1-3 inches. Flowers from J to rather more than 1 inch in diameter. Petals tender, with a 
tubular nectary about the middle of the claw'. Calyx smooth, of one-third or half the length of the corolla, 
very soon dropping. Stamens many, sometimes reduced to about one dozen, short. Anthers oblong. 
Pollen-grains spheroid. Carpels |-f line long, glabrous or hispid; at times as few as 10.— Conf. Smith's 
English Flora, eel. ii. vol. iii. p. 54—56. 
After watching for nearly twenty years the numerous varieties of this plant, I know of no species 
belonging to the section Batracliium, except perhaps It. liederaceus and It. circinnatus, which have any 
claim on specific distinction from It. aquatilis. In most instances, as Sir James Smith justly observed, the 
causes of aberration from the more common forms in this polymorphous plant are at once explained by the 
conditions of the localities in which they are produced. 
Sect. II. Hecatonia, Ccmd. Prodr. i. 30. 
Petals yellow or white, 'with one rarely two nectar-pits, which are generally covered by a scale. 
Carpels naked. 
Ranunculus IVSillani, F. M. in Hook. Kern Miscell. vii. 358; Transact. Phil. Soc. Viet. i.p. 97. 
Dwarf, stemless; root annual, fasciculate-fibrous; leaves pinnati-sected, glabrous or together with 
the upper part of the petioles scantily downy; segments of leaves few, linear, undivided or U- or trisected, 
terminated by a gland; peduncle one-flowered, spreading-downy, of the length of or shorter or rarely 
longer than the petioles; sepals appressed, glabrous; petals white, 5—10, obovate- or oblong-cuneate, almost 
twice as long as the calyx; nectar-pit distant from the base, margined, covered by a hardly perceptible 
scale; receptacle hairy; carpels rather few, glabrous, broad-ovate, slightly compressed, acuminate by the 
recurved style. 
In gravelly places, chiefly such as form slight depressions in the alpine meadows, irrigated by the 
melting snow, on most of the summits of the Australian Alps. 
A neat little plant, 1-3 inches high, generally growing gregariously, accidentally only producing a 
very short creeping stem. Boot large for the size of the plant, consisting of a bundle of fibres, often 2-3 
inches long. Leaves J-l inch long, on a conspicuous petiole; their segments rather acute. Peduncle from 
a few lines to two inches long, bractless or with one or two linear bracts, often solitary. Sepals oval, with 
membranous margin. Petals 3-4 lines long, with a hyaline base, rarely cream-colored. Stamens not very 
numerous. Filaments mostly longer than the oblong-oval anthers. Carpels about § line long, forming a 
globular head. 
Tins species was named in acknowledgment of much aid which the author received during his botanical 
exploration of the Australian Alps, from Angus McMillan, Esq., the discoverer of Gipps Land, it being 
originally found on Mount Wellington, a mountain which that generous gentleman first named and 
ascended. 
Ran. Millani flowers in the latter part of the spring and in the beginning of summer. 
11 s and the following are the only endemic white flowering species of Crowfoots found in Australia; 
they are curious as repeating here one of the alpine types of the genus as occurring in the northern liemi- 
