Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/50

A magnificent plant, by far the finest of the genus; so common in many portions of the Southern Alps that in summer the mountain-slopes are whitened from the abundance of the flowers. It has received many local names, as the "mountain lily," "shepherd's lily," "Mount Cook lily," &c. Its nearest ally outside New Zealand is R. Baurii, MacOwan, from the Transvaal, which has peltate leaves 4–5 in. diam. and small yellow flowers. R. Traversii does not seem to have been observed since its first discovery more than forty years ago. I have seen no specimens, but I am indebted to the Director of the Kew Herbarium for a drawing of the type specimen, which leaves no doubt in my mind that it is merely a local form of R. Lyallii.

2. R. Buchanani, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 5.—Stout, erect, more or less covered with long silky hairs, rarely almost glabrous. Rootstock thick, with numerous long fleshy rootlets. Radical leaves on long petioles 2–6 in. long, with short and broad sheathing bases; blade reniform in outline, 2–6 in. diam., ternatisect, main divisions stalked, more or less deeply divided into linear or cuneate lobes, which are usually again 3–5-fid or -toothed, rarely entire. Cauline leaves similar, but usually more finely cut, sessile or nearly so. Flowers solitary or 2–3, large, white, 1½–2½ in. diam. Sepals 5, oblong, villous. Petals very numerous, linear-oblong, rounded at the apex, narrowed to the base; gland solitary, basilar. Achenes turgid, pilose, forming a globose head ½ in. diam.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 8.

South Island: Otago—Lake district, Buchanan! Mounts Bonpland, Tyndall, and Aspiring, Petrie! Bald Peak, B. C. Aston! Mount Earnslaw, H. J. Matthews! Altitudinal range 4000–6000 ft. December–January.

A singular and beautiful plant, quite unlike any other, confined, so far as is known, to the high mountains to the west of the Otago lake district. The leaves are said to be sometimes nearly entire, and the flowers yellow, but I have not seen specimens showing these peculiarities.

3. R. insignis, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 8, t. 2.—A stout, erect, paniculately branched plant 1–3 ft. in height, usually villous in all its parts, brownish or rufous when dry. Radical leaves numerous, large, on stout petioles with broad sheathing bases, thick and coriaceous, rounded-cordate or reniform, crenate and often shortly lobed, 4–9 in. diam.; cauline smaller, upper ones cut and lobed. Peduncles often very numerous, stout; bracts linear-oblong. Flowers golden-yellow, 1–2 in. diam. Sepals 5, woolly at the back. Petals 5–6, rarely more, obcordate, with 1 or 2 glands at the base. Stamens many, short. Receptacle oblong, pubescent. Achenes forming a rounded head ½ in. diam., tumid, villous; style long, slender.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 4; Kirk, Students' Fl. 7. R. ruahinicus, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xviii. (1886) 256. R. sychnopetala. Col. l.c. xxv. (1893) 324, and xxvi. (1894) 313 (a monstrous state with very numerous narrow petals). R. rufus. Col. l.c. xxviii. (1896) 591.

Var. b, lobulatus, Kirk, Students' Fl. 8.—Leaves membranous, suborbicular, deeply lobed or sinuate, with a few weak hairs, rarely sub-peltate.