Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 8; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 5; Kirk, Students' Fl. 8. R. reticulatus, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 188.
North Island: Mount Egmont, abundant, Dieffenbach, Buchanan! T. F. C.; Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and Ruapehu, G. Mair! H. Hill! Altitudinal range 3000–6000 ft. December–February.
A remarkably graceful and beautiful plant, excellently figured in the Icones Plantarum.
8. R. geraniifolius, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 9, t. 3.—Erect, slender, sparingly branched, 1–2 ft. high, glabrous or occasionally villous with long white hairs, especially on the petioles. Radical leaves few, on long slender petioles 3–6 in. long; blade 2–4 in. diam., broadly reniform in outline, deeply 3–5-lobed, sometimes to the very base; lobes either cuneate and crenate-toothed or -lobed or again deeply divided into narrow linear segments. Cauline leaves sessile, usually much and finely divided. Flowers few, seldom more than 3, ½–1 in. diam., yellow. Sepals 5, oblong, glabrous or very slightly pilose. Petals usually numerous, 8–15, linear-oblong, rounded at the tip, with a single basal gland. Achenes forming a small globose head, glabrous, turgid; style short, subulate.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 5; Kirk, Students' Fl. 9. R. verticillatus. Kirk, l.c. 13.
North Island: Hikurangi, Colenso! Ruahine Mountains, Colenso! Olsen! Petrie! Tararua Mountains, Buchanan! Arnold! Townson! South Island: Mountains of Nelson, not uncommon as far south as Lake Tennyson, Monro, T. F. C. Mount Murchison, Townson! Mount Stokes, Macmahon, Kirk. Altitudinal range 2500–5000 ft. December–January.
Closely allied to the preceding species, but easily distinguished by the smaller size, more slender habit, fewer leaves (which are often very finely cut), fewer and smaller flowers, and by the petals being usually rounded at the tip. Mr. Kirk's R. verticillatus is based upon a single imperfect specimen, without locality, in Mr. Buchanan's herbarium. I consider that it is a small one-flowered state of R. geraniifolius, with which it exactly agrees in habit, pubescence, and flowers, differing only in the more rounded leaf-segments, a character of little importance in a species with such variable foliage.
9. R. Enysii, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii. (1880) 394.—Slender, leafy, glabrous, 6–15 in. high. Rootstock rather stout, with numerous fibrous rootlets. Leaves all radical, numerous; petioles 2–6 in. long, grooved; blade 1–3 in. diam., 3–5-foliolate or biternate; leaflets long-stalked, very variable in size and amount of cutting, sometimes large and rounded, toothed or 3–5-lobed, at other times smaller and cut to the base into 3–5 narrow-cuneate incised toothed or lobed segments, occasionally pinnately divided. Scapes 1–5, longer than the leaves, simple or rarely with 1–2 short branches, naked or with a single stalked or sessile variously divided cauline leaf. Flower ½–l in. diam. Sepals 5, broadly ovate. Petals usually 5, rarely more, broadly obovate, with a single basilar gland. Achenes forming a small rounded head, numerous, turgid, glabrous; style short,
