454 RANUNCULACEAE. [ Myosurus. 
9. MYOSURUS Linn. 
Annual herbs, of small size. Leaves all radical, linear, entire. Scapes 
usually numerous, naked, 1-flowered. Sepals 5, rarely more, minutely 
spurred at the base. Petals wanting in the New Zealand species. Stamens 
5-8. Carpels numerous; ovules solitary, pendulous. Achenes closely 
packed on a long and slender spike-like receptacle which usually lengthens 
much as they ripen, each with a raised nerve on the back, ending in a short 
persistent style. 
A small genus of only two species, one of which is widely spread in the North 
Temperate Zone, and is also found in Australia; the other is known only from California, 
Chile, and New Zealand. rie . sme sa 7 
1. M. aristatus Benth. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vi (1847) 459.—Varying 
in size from 1-3in. Leaves numerous, gin. broad or even less, 
erect, linear or linear-spathulate. Scapes usually several, slender, 1- 
flowered. Flower minute, yellowish, apetalous. Sepals 5, spur short. 
Stamens generally 5. Receptacle in fruit oblong or linear, }-? in. Jong ; 
achenes with a short beak—AHook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 8; Handb. N.Z. 
Fl. (1864) 3; 7. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 5;. Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 
(1906) 6. 
NortH i Daoch near Wellington, Buchanan. 
SourH Iswa TTA 
Beaumont, 
Kirk ! L 
Of lati 
by Americ: 
plant form 
srave dou| 
the Chilia: 
publicatio1 
Herbs w.. 
white flowers. Sepals 3-9, uccraue- 
ing in number from 4 to 20, with I-3 glandular pits or SCales te. 
base. Stamens many. Carpels usually numerous; styles short; ovules 
solitary, ascending. Achenes numerous, 1-seeded, collected into a globular 
or ovoid head tipped with the persistent straight or recurved style. 
A large genus of probably quite 300 species, dispersed over the whole world, but 
most numerous in temperate or cool regions. In New Zealand it forms a very 
conspicuous portion of the mountain vegetation, especially in the South Island ; 
some of the species, as R. Lyallii and R. insignis, being the finest known. Many of 
them are variable and difficult of discrimination, especially in the section with com- 
pressed achenes. Of the 40 species admitted in this work, 4 are found in Australia, 
i in Chile, while another ranges from Fuegia and Falkland Islands to South Georgia, 
Kerguelen Island and its satellites to Macquarie Island, the remaining 34 being 
endemic. In addition to the native species, at least 10 or 11 from the Northern 
Hemisphere have become naturalized as weeds in pastures and waste places, the 
most abundant being R. bulbosus L., R. sardous Crantz, and R. repens L, References 
to descriptions of these will be found in the Appendix. 
A. Stems tall, erect. Flowers large. Achenes villous or silky. 
* Flowers white. 
Leaves large, peltate, margins simply crenate 7: .. 1. BR. Lyallu. 
Leaves reniform in outline, coarsely ternatisect, 3-6 in. diam. .. 2. R. Matthewsi. 
Leaves 3-5-partite or dissected ; segments usually linear . 3. R. Buchanani. 
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