Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/256

224 a variety of A. decapetala, judging from the description given in Walpers. As nearly allied to this genus I may here mention the Hamadryas audicola, Hook. (Ic. Plant, t. 136), which is the Hepatica? integrifolia, H. B. K. I have examined specimens of this with ripe fruit : the carpels are few, large, and turgid, slightly hairy, the style long and filiform : the seed large, minutely punctate, and pendulous, by a short funiculus from a point a little below the apex of the cell, characters which will remove it from Hamadryas.

2. RANUNCULUS, C. Bank.


 * Hecatonia, glaberrima, folds lobatis v. dissectis.

1. Ranunculus bitematus, Smith, in Bees Cycl. DC. Syst. Peg. vol. i. p. 236. Proclr. vol. i. p. 30. Beless. Icon. vol. i. t. 24. Hook. Icon. Plant, t. 497. R. exiguus, HUrv. Mem. Soc. Linn. Paris, vol. iv. p. 615. Gaud, in Freyc. Toy. Bot. p. 136. R. flaccidus, Banks et Sol. MSS. in Mus. Banks.

Hab. Fuegia ; Commerson, Banks, and Solander. Darwin. Hermite Island ; /. B. H. Falkland Island ; HUrville, Mr. Wright, Capt. Snlivan, &c.

Bather a variable species, especially in size, in the breadth of the segments of the leaves, and in the number of petals. The R. exiguus, D'Urv., is a small state of this plant, common in the Falklands. The heads of carpels are very large in proportion to the size of the foliage, and especially of the flower.

2. Ranunculus crassipes, Hook. fil. ; glaberrima, crassa et carnosa, caule repente, foliis longe petiolatis cordato-reniformibns trifidis trilobatis tripartitisve segmentis grosse inrequaliter 3-5-crenatis, pedivnculis petiolo brevioribus, sepalis glaberrimis demum reflexis, petalis 4-6 obovato-spathulatis obtusis flavis, capitulo rnajusculo, carpellis plurimis late ovatis turgidis, stylo brevi recto. An a R. biternato distincta ? (Tab. LXXXI.)

Hab. Kerguelen's Land ; in moist places near tbe sea, abundant. Catdes spithamei, ad nodos radicantes, crassitie pennee corvinse. Petioli 1-4 unc. longi. Folia varie secta, pleriunque trifida v. tripartita, segmentis late cuneatis. Pedunculi axillares, validi, erecti. Flos solitarius, inconspicuus. Sepala ovata, obtusa, membranacea. Petala 4-5, calyce longiora, lin. longa, 3-nervia, versus medium glandida opaca instructa. Capitula ut in R. biternato sed stylis strictis.

I advance this species with much hesitation, as it may prove only a variety of R. bitematus, from the largest states of which it is to be distinguished by its still greater size, more succulent habit, and especially by the more entire leaves, with much broader segments. These are, however, variable characters in both species, and some imperfect specimens of the former from Hermite Island assume a much larger size than others from the Falklands or from the northern parts of the Fuegia.

Plate LXXXI. Fig. 1, a flower ; fig. 2, a petal ; fig. 3, a stamen ; fig. 4, an ovarium ; fig. 5, a ripe carpel; fig. 6, the same cut open showing the seed : — all magnified.


 * Hecatonia, pilosa, foliis dissectis.

3. Ranunculus c/iilensis, DC. Syst. Peg. vol. i. p. 286. Prodr. vol. i. p. 38. Cham, and Schlecht. Animadv. pt. 2. p. 27. Hook, and Am. Bot. Beechey, p. 4. t. 3. Bot. Miscell. vol. iii. p. 134.

Hab. Cape Tres Montes and Chonos Archipelago ; C. Darwin, Esq.

A very variable plant in habit (being either erect or creeping) and in the state of pubescence, in the size of the leaf and flower, and also in length of the petioles and peduncles : it is abundant throughout Chili, and possibly assumes a different form in a warmer latitude. In Mr. Darwin's specimens the flowers are small, scarcely 3-4 lines in dia-