Var. elongatus.—Tall and slender, often over 2 ft. high; sparingly hairy or almost glabrate. Leaves trifoliolate or 3-ternately divided, segments cut into numerous narrow acute segments, sometimes almost digitate. Stem branched above. Differing greatly in appearance from the usual form, and in some respects coming nearer to the ordinary state in Australia. It is probably the plant referred to R. acris by A. Richard, but can always be distinguished from that species by the small flowers and leaves not truly digitate. Lowland districts north of Auckland.
Var. gracilis.—Slender, erect or suberect, 6–10 in. high, sparingly covered with silky appressed hairs. Leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets often long-stalked, ovate-cuneate, irregularly and sparingly toothed or lobed. Flowers large, ½–¾ in. diam. Achenes larger, with a longer style. Mountain districts of the South Island, 3000–4500 ft. This is a well-marked plant, which Mr. Kirk described as "sub-species plebeius," quoting R. plebeius, R. Br., as a synonym. But this I feel sure is a mistake, for it does not at all agree either with descriptions or specimens of R. Brown's plant.
Var. stoloniferus, Kirk, l.c.—Small. Stems very slender, procumbent and rooting at the nodes. Leaves 3-fid. Flowers and fruit very small. Damp sub-alpine localities in the South Island, not uncommon.
21. R. recens, T. Kirk, Students Fl. 13.—Short, stout, depressed, seldom more than 1½ in. 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, ¼–1 in. 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, ⅓ 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.
North Island: Taranaki—Moist places on sandhills near Hawera, T. F. C. South Island: Otago—Buchanan! Petrie! (Herb. Kirk); sandhills near Fortrose, Southland, B. C. Aston! H. J. Matthews! (Herb. Petrie). Probably not uncommon, but easily overlooked.
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 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 fifteen 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.
22. R. Kirkii, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. (1887) 323, and xxxi. 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
