Rannnculacece .] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
5 
Leaves numerous, 1-2 inches long-, ^-1 line broad, somewhat fleshy, one-nerved, rather blunt, tapering 
into petioles of nearly their own length. Flower-stalks several, or very many arising from each root, finely 
streaked, 1-5 inches long, thickened towards the summit. Sepals concave, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 
without the basal appendage 1-2 lines long, spreading, deciduous, of a pale color; appendage half or 
nearly as long as the sepals, linear-subulate, membranous. Petals deciduous; their lamina much shorter 
than the sepals, cream-colored; their claw capillary, line long. Filaments narrow-linear, about half 
as long as the calyx. Anthers oblong-linear, blunt, in age narrow-linear and twisted, line long. 
Number of ovaries always considerable, sometimes more than 300, occasionally reduced to less than fifty. 
Fruit-spike generally 1-2 inches long, singularly resembling a mouse-tail, whence the generic name. Recep¬ 
tacle thin-filiform, uneven, persistent. Carpels trigonous-ovate, at the back rhomboid, pointed at the apex 
by the style, about half a line long, with a dorsal rib, thickened at the outer margin, at their inner angle 
acute, in age bent at the base slightly outward, at last deciduous. Seeds oblong-ovate, slightly compressed, 
brown, streaked.— Smith ’I Engl . Flora , ii. p. 124; Hook. Bond . Journ. of Bot . vi. 459. 
The only other known species of this genus, M. aristatus, may be recognised by its less numerous 
long-rostrate lax carpels, and may yet be found in Australia. J. Hooker (Flor. of New Zealand, i. 8) states 
it to he destitute of petals, as originally mentioned by Gay (Flor. of Chili, i. 31, t. 1, f. 1), whilst Sir 
Will. Hooker and G. Bentham found the corolla to be present in the American specimens. This character 
therefore seems subject to variation. The notes by which I once distinguished the Australian plant from 
the European seem not to afford the means of clear specific distinction. 
M. minimus flowers early in the spring. It is not at all improbable that the plant may have been 
introduced from abroad. 
Tribe III. RANUNCULEiE, Gaud. Syst. i. 228. 
Calyx imbricate in aestivation. Petals generally with 1 rarely 2-3 nectar-pits. 
Carpels indehiscent, with a solitary erect seed. 
RANUNCULUS. 
C . Bank. Pin . 180; Cand . Syst. i. 231.—Crowfoot, Spearwort. 
Sepals 3-7, deciduous. Petals generally 5, sometimes numerous, very rarely wanting, inside 
with 1 rarely 2-3 nectar-pits. Stamens and pistils several or numerous, rarely very few. Carpels 
one-celled. 
Herbs with few exceptions acrid, dispersed over the whole globe, except through low tropical 
regions, copious in the colder zone, varied in aspect and in leaves, the majority of the species with 
yellow, some with white, few with purple or red, none with blue flowers. 
Sect. I. Batrachium, Cand. Syst. i. 233. 
Petals white, with a yellow claw. Nectar-pit neither covered with a scale nor surrounded by a 
prominent margin. Carpels in exsiccation transversely wrinkled. 
Glabrous swamp or water plants. Submersed leaves generally divided into numerous capillary 
segments; roots fibrous; peduncles one-flowered, opposite to the leaves. 
Ranunculus aquatilis, Linne, Sp . Plant . 781.—Water Crowfoot. 
Stems perennial, submersed or creeping; leaves stalked, either all repeatedly divided into chiefly 
trichotomous numerous spreading hair-like segments , or the floating ones kidney-shaped, 3-5-lobed or 
notched; lobes of the latter wedge-shaped and cut in front, or deeply and variously cleft; petals obovate- or 
