Abstract
I MAY perhaps supplement Mr. Parkin's interesting observations on Ranunculus tenuicaulis Cheesem. This montane species is rare throughout New Zealand and of most frequent occurrence in Otago, in which province I collected it. Single stations are also given in Cheeseman's “Manual of the New Zealand Flora” (Ed. 2, p. 442) for Canterbury and Nelson, whilst in the North Island the plant has been collected in the Tararua Mts. The plant was first collected by Cheeseman in 1883 at Arthur's Pass in the Southern Alps of Canterbury, and there are single authentic specimens of this gathering in the herbaria at Kew and the British Museum. We are indebted to the authorities at Kew and the British Museum for descriptions of these plants, both of which are in ripe fruit and lack perianth members, as does a second specimen at Kew collected by Kirk in the same locality a year later. In his original description of the species (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 17,1884) Cheeseman writes, “Petals not seen”; and the inadequate references to the flowers in later descriptions in the “Manual”, and particularly the absence of any reference to the very unusual and pronounced reddish colour of the perianth, would suggest that he never saw the plant in flower. His description of the achenes is more complete, and in the second edition of the “Manual” he adds the following note: “A very curious species, remarkable for the fusiform achenes and long spirally recurved styles”. These “remarkable” facts are significant in view of Mr. Parkin's observations and the probable affinity of this plant with the genus Anemone.
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SLEDGE, W. A Genus of Ranunculace hitherto Unrecorded for New Zealand. Nature 130, 24 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130024a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130024a0
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