STEELE — NEW PLANTS FROM EASTERN" UNITED STATES. 863 



It would be desirable also to establish preserves for native plants 

 where unspoiled areas can still be found, and also to put to experi- 

 mental test the possibility of restoring on agricultural ground primeval 

 conditions of soil and flora. At least, it can not be too much to ask 

 that such magnificent plants as SilpMum laciniatum and 8. tere- 

 binthinaceum and some of the Laciniarias of the scariosa type should 

 be preserved in an adequate number of botanical gardens. The 

 buffalo has been rescued from extinction, why not the compass 

 plant ? 



Anychia divaricata Raf. Neogenyton 4: 42. 1825. 



Plant of a dull green aspect or at maturity with some reddish brown, low, dichoto- 

 mously intricate, at length horizontal-spreading, sometimes to a breadth of 20 cm. or 

 more, but not humifuse, 4 or 5 cm. high, minutely hirsute; trunk 2 or 3 cm. high, 

 bifurcating at the fourth or fifth manifest node or lower, one or two pairs or half pairs of 

 weak spreading branches at and below the first bifurcation, or commonly none, the 

 internodes short, especially toward the extremities; leaves oblanceolate, punctate- 

 roughened, the margin entire and naked, acute and mucronate at the apex, the largest 

 2 cm. long, the outermost not exceeding 2 or 3 mm.; stipules ovatedanceolate; calyx 

 segments 3-nerved, the hoods somewhat apiculate; style entire, but with two stigmas; 

 stamens 5. 



According to Rafinesque, "Found from the Alleghany Mountains to Kentucky on 

 hills. " 



First collected by the writer on Stony Man Mountain in the Blue Ridge, Page County, 

 Virginia, August and September, 1901 (no. 242), where it abounds at an altitude of 

 about 1,200 meters. It has since that time been collected by me in the same State, 

 near Eagle Rock, Botetourt County, and on Johns Creek Mountain, Craig County 

 (both as no. 3), in 1903; near Goshen, Rockbridge County, 1904; at Millboro, Bath 

 County, 1906; at Augusta Springs, Augusta County, 1908; and in West Virginia, on 

 Peters Mountain, near Old Sweet Springs, Monroe County, 1905. 

 The National Herbarium has further the following specimens: 



Virginia: Nottingham County, Massanutten Mountain, Heller 6c Halbach 1090; 



Warren County, Cedarville, G. S. Miller, July 17, 1897. 

 North Carolina: Polk County, Columbus, E. C. Townsend, June 30, 1897. 

 Georgia: Walker County, Pigeon Mountain, Harper 337 of 1900. 

 West Virginia: Wyoming County, Baileysville, E, L. Morris 1254a; Morgan 



County, Berkeley Springs, II. D. House 1570. 

 Maryland: Washington County near Sideling Hill, Shreve dc Jones 796. 

 Pennsylvania: Bedford County, Hyndman, John K. Small, August 19-23, 1890 

 (2 sheets). 

 In contrast with this plant A. polygonoides is of an erect habit, bifurcates at about 

 the seventh node, has several pairs of branchlets below, has the leaves longer and per- 

 ceptibly, though minutely, spinulose-serrulate, has the style divided nearly to the 

 base, and has but 2 stamens. The stipules are also somewhat narrower and the calyx 

 segments more prominently nerved and more apiculate. It is also a blue green plant 

 while the present species is dull. 



Doctor Robinson in his paper on the identity of Anychia dichotoma a has correctly 

 cited my Stony Man no. 72 under Anychia polygonoides, but wrongly my 242, which 

 ie of the present species. He nowhere in the paper even canvasses the possibility of 

 A. divaricata being a good species. He doubtless failed to note the undivided style and 

 the five stamens. The low branching and the spreading habit are also good characters 

 and in well-developed specimens very conspicuous. 



a Rhodora 6: 53. 1894. 



