Ranunculus. | RANUNCULACBAE. 459 
or branched flowering peduncles, each of which usually bears 1-2 secondary 
bracts. Flowers numerous, large, 1-2 in. diam., golden-yellow. Sepals 5, 
broadly oblong. Petals 5, cuneate-obovate, emarginate, with 2-3 naked 
glands at the base. Receptacle broadly oblong, pilose ; achenes numerous, 
somewhat turgid, sparingly pilose or nearly glabrous, gradually narrowed 
into a slender curved style.—Z. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 8; Cheesem. Man. 
NZ. £1. (1906) 11. 
Sourn Istanp: Apparently confined to the central chain of the Southern Alps. 
Whitcombe’s Pass, at the headwaters of the Rakaia River, Haast / J. B. Armstrong ! 
J. D. Enys ! Fitzgerald’s Pass, Mount Cook district, P. Graham ! Mount Arrowsmith, 
Cockayne and R. M. Laing; Franz Josef Gracier and Mount Moltke, Cockayne. 
A very remarkable species, easily distinguished by its smooth and glabrous habit, 
broadly oblong leaves, rounded or cuneate at the base, and numerous yellow flowers. 
7. R. Monroi Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii (1855) 323.—Short, stout, 
6-15in. high or more, more or less silky-villous or almost glabrous. 
Rootstock short, clothed with the persistent bases of the old leaf-sheaths. 
Leaves all radical, on short stout petioles with broad sheathing bases, 
coriaceous or almost fleshy sometimes thinner and submembranous ; blade 
variable in outline, 1-4in. diam., reniform-rounded or ovate, cordate or 
rounded at the base, coasely crenate or crenate-lobulate. Scapes simple 
or sparingly branched, 1—3-flowered; bracts entire or deeply lobed. 
Flowers yellow, 4-1 in. diam., rarely more. Sepals 5, linear-oblong, obtuse, 
glabrous or silky. Petals 5-8, almost twice as long as the sepals, narrow 
obovate-cuneate, each with a single glandular pit at the base. Achenes 
numerous, forming a small globose head, usually glabrous, turgid, keeled 
at the back; style straight or recurved.—T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. 
xxvii (1895) 349; Students’ Fl. (1899) 9; Oheesem. Man. N.Z. FI. 
(1906) 11. R. pinguis var. a Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 5. R. Mueller 
Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix (1887) 215, t. 16. 
Var. sericeus 7’. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 9.—Achenes clothed with silky hairs. 
Var. dentatus 7’. Kirk l.c. 9.—Leaves broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, coarsely 
toothed or dentate, clothed on both surfaces with strigose ferruginous pubescence, 
sometimes almost shaggy. 
Nortu Isuanp: Tararua Mountains, Buchanan! SoutH Istanp: Wairau Gorge 
and Tarndale, Sinclair, T. F. C.; Spenser Mountains, Kaikoura Mountains, 7’. Kirk / 
Marlborough, Monro; Clarence Valley, 7. #. C.; Mount Torlesse and Upper Wai- 
makariri, 7’. Kirk! Cockayne! Var. sericeus: Mount Peel, H. H. Allan! Kaikoura 
Mountains, 7’. Kirk / Var. dentatus: Not uncommon in mountain districts in Marl- 
borough and Canterbury from the Clarence River southwards. 1500-4500 ft. 
December—January. 
A very variable plant, united with RA. pinguis by Hooker, but differing from 
that species in the petals being always much longer than the sepals, in the scape 
being usually branched and not thickened upwards, and in the longer styles to the 
achenes. The var. dentatus has a very different appearance to the typical form, and 
but for the occurrence of numerous intermediates might have been treated as a 
distinct species. 
8. R. pinguis Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. 1 (1844) 3, t. 1—Short, stout, 
usually rather fleshy, 2-10in. high, sparingly pilose or almost glabrous. 
Rootstock stout, with numerous fleshy rootlets. Leaves all radical, on 
long stout petioles with stout sheathing bases; blade 1-3in. diam.., 
reniform, deeply crenate-lobed. Scape as long or longer than the leaves, 
stout, thickened upwards, naked or with 1-2 bracts above the middle, 
