A. creriven, sa MMPMaewn. wrera, Royo. Mate. Sioa Ta, Se. 
A 
Ranunculus. ] RANUNCULACEAE. 447 
Var. stoloniferous 7. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 14.—Stems very slender, pro- 
cumbent and rooting at the nodes. Leaves 3-fid. Flowers and fruit very small. 
Damp subalpine localities in the South Island, not uncommon. 
Norra, Sours, Stewart, AND CHATHAM ISLANDS: — Abundant throughout, 
ascending to 4500 ft. October—January. Also plentiful in Australia. 
A very variable plant. The typical state can be recognized by the copious soft 
spreading hairs, sparingly branched stem, and trifoliolate leaves with broad ey 
toothed or lobed segments. Mr. Kirk’s var. robustus (Students’ Fl. (1899) 14) is simply 
a large state with the stem more copiously branched and the achenes slightly larger, 
and passes imperceptibly into the usual form. 
26. R. recens 7. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 13.—Short, stout, depressed, 
seldom more than ldin. high, sparingly clothed with stiff white hairs, 
especially on the petioles and upper surfaces of the leaves. Rootstock 
stout, with long stringy rootlets, often branched above. Leaves all radical, 
rosulate, thick and coriaceous; petioles broadly sheathing at the base, 
flattened, }-lin. long; blade ovate or rounded in outline, more or less 
deeply 3-lobed or trifoliolate, segments or leaflets irregularly cut and lobed, 
acute or obtuse. Scape very short and often almost absent, usually hispid 
with white hairs. Flowers minute, }in. diam. Sepals 5, linear or linear- 
oblong, acute. Petals 5, hardly longer than the sepals, linear-spathulate, 
obtuse at the tip, gland just below the middle. Achenes ovate-orbicular, 
red-brown when ripe, slightly compressed ; margin thickened, blunt; face 
minutely pitted; style very short, stout, minutely hooked at the tip.— 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 19. uke fe 
Norra Istranp: Taranaki— Moist places on sandhills near Hawera, 7. FP. C. 
Soutu Istanp : Otago—Buchanan ! Petrie / (Herb. Kirk); Sandymount, near Dunedin, 
W. Martin ; sandhills near Fortrose, Southland, B. C. Aston! H. J. Matthews ! (Herb. 
Petrie). Probably not uncommon, but easily overlooked. ev wary \S. 
A very curious little species. The type specimens in Kirk’s herbarium are very 
imperfect, and in fruit only. Those in Petrie’s herbarium, collected by B. C. Aston and 
H. J. Matthews, show both flower and fruit, and have enabled me to draw up a more 
complete description. My own specimens, collected at Hawera more than thirty 
years ago, have smaller and less divided leaves, but the habit is the same, and the 
achenes exactly match those of the southern plant. Mr. Kirk was in error in supposing 
the species to be alpine. All the specimens I have seen have been obtained from 
sandhills near the sea. 
27. R. Kirkii Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix (1887) 323, and xxxi (1899) 
352, t. 25.—Slender, sparingly covered with soft white hairs 3-6 in. high. 
Rootstock stout, with numerous thick fleshy roots. Radical leaves on long 
slender petioles 1-3 in. long; blade sometimes linear-spathulate and entire, 
but usually 3-foliolate ; leaflets stalked, rounded-ovate, entire or 3-lobed, 
coriaceous. Scapes several, singple or branched, 3-5 in. high; cauline 
leaves or bracts few, spathulate. _ Flowers small. Sepals 5, oblong-lanceo- 
late. Petals 5, linear-oblong, rounded at the tip, clawed at the base, with 
a gland just above the claw. Achenes few, slightly compressed, keeled ; 
style subulate, hooked at the tip—TZT. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 15 (an part) ; 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 19. 
Srewart Istanp: Swamps at Paterson’s Inlet, Petrie! Thomson! valleys of the 
Rakiahua and Freshwater Rivers, open ground at Port Pegasus, abundant, but local, 
Cockayne. 
I regret that 1 have been unable to obtain additional material of this species since 
the publication of the first edition of this work, for the above description is imperfect 
in several respects. Mr. Kirk considers that its nearest ally is R. lappaceous, but I 
can find little affinity with that plant. It is much nearer to R. ternatifolius. The 
figure of the species given in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi (1899) is not characteristic of any 
specimens I have seen. 
