glaberrimi, superne incano-pilosi. Stipulæ ovatæ, acuminatæ, rufo-fuscæ, scarioso-membranaceæ. Pedunculi uniflori, erecti, petiolo breviores, superne pilosi, supra medium bibracteolati; bracteis parvis, oppositis, ovatis, acuminatis. Petala 1½–2 lin. longa, patentia, alba. Stamina 10, subæqualia; antheris oblongis.
In the single-flowered peduncles this is allied to the Tasmanian G. potentilloides of L’Héritier, but the plant is much more dwarfish, with short procumbent or ascending stems, less hairy, especially below, with the hairs appressed; the peduncles also are shorter than the leaves, which latter are less deeply cut.
Plate V. Fig. 1, flower; fig. 2, petal; fig. 3, flower with the petals removed; fig. 4, underside of the calyx; fig. 5, portion of the stamens; fig. 6, ovaria:—all more or less magnified.
VI.ROSACEÆ, Juss.
1. Sieversia albiflora, Hook. fil.; parvula, hirsuta, caulibus seu scapis parce foliosis tri-quinquefloris, foliis radicalibus interrupte lyrato-pinnatis, foliolis lateralibus minutis grosse dentatis, terminali maximo orbiculari-cordato obscure lobato inæqualiter dentato, caulinis subsessilibus, pedicellis superne incrassatis unibracteatis, bractea sessili trifida, calycis segmentis patentibus ciliatis, petalis (albis) obovatis retusis extus pilosis, ovariis in stylum brevem rectum (nee geniculatum) attenuatis in stipitem articulatis, receptaculo elongato gracili. (Tab. VII.)
Hab. Lord Auckland's group; rocky places on the hills, alt. 1000 feet.
I regret that owing to the early season I only met with two or three flowers of this rare plant, and not one specimen with perfect fruit. It is the smallest species known to me, and has a creeping, woody, subfusiform, oblique root, throwing out coarse fibres; and from the summits of this spring most of the leaves. The stems, or rather scapes (for they remain withered stalks after the fall of the fruit), arise also from the top of this root, and are branched, twice or thrice as long as the radical leaves; they bear a few flowers with white petals, which are succeeded by the narrow elongated receptacle, hispid as it were with the persistent stipites of the carpels. It is this character which it has in common with a very arctic species, the S. Rossii, Br., together with the very short styles, that induces me to place it in Sieversia; for the style seems too short ever to be geniculated. It further differs from all known species in having white petals.
Plate VII. Fig. 1, unexpanded flower; fig. 2, expanded flower; fig. 3, petal; fig. 4 and fig. 5, stamens; fig. 6, young ovarium; fig. 7, receptacle after the carpels have fallen away:—all more or less magnified.
1. Acæna (Ancistrum) Sanguisorbæ, Vahl., Enum. vol. i. p. 294. DeC. Prodr. vol. ii. p. 592. A. Cunn. Prodr. Fl. Nov. Zeal. in Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. iii. p. 244. Ancistrum Sanguisorbæ, Linn. fil. A. anserinæfolium, Forst. Gen. t. 2.A. diandrum, Forst. Prodr. n. 52. A. decumbens, Gærtn. Fruct. t.32.
Var. β. minor; depressa, ramis brevissimis, foliis valde sericeis. A. decumbens, Menzies in Herb. Hook.
Hab. Abundant in Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island, especially on cliffs overhanging the sea.β. On the mountains in rocky places. McQuarrie's Island, in Herb. Hook.; also found in Dusky Bay by Mr. Menzies.
The ordinary states of this plant differ in no particular from other specimens gathered at the Bay of Islands. It is also a native of Tasmania, and probably of Southern Australia. Stems trailing, a span to two feet long. Branches erect or ascending. Leaves impari-pinnate, with 4–6 pairs of obovate or oblong, coarsely serrated, sessile leaflets, smooth on the upper surface, silky beneath, and more especially in the young plants, and in var.
