364 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



In many large specimens the plexus of branches is very dense but in others here 

 admitted it is very much thinned out. There seems to be a gradation from one to the 

 other form. 



This species is not to be confused with a plant, abundant in some places near Wash- 

 ington, which approaches A. polygonoides in habit but has the leaves and ultimate 

 branches gathered into close clusters, giving the aspect of a "resurrection plant. " This 

 is not a condition due to drought, as it occurs early in the season and where moisture is 

 not lacking. It has the habit of a miniature American elm. There are also similar 

 specimens from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky. This is a true Anychia, 

 having the style cleft, but I am not sure of its specific status. It may grade into 

 polygonoides, but I doubt this. 



Anychia divaricata has not been found near Washington and all the settled speci- 

 mens are from the mountain country. It occurs on denuded ground, not objecting to 

 a deserted field or a roadside, and is not particular about soil, occurring both on shale 

 and siliceous ground, whether on limestone not known. It will endure drier and more 

 sterile conditions than A. polygonoides, yet not seldom occurs in the same vicinity. 



I leave it to Doctor Small, who is already acquainted with this plant, to transfer it to 

 Anychiastruni, if he sees fit. These notes, representing my independent observations, 

 will hardly be amiss. 



Clematis viticaulia Steele, sp. nov. 



Rootstock densely clad with slender fibers, these sometimes reaching 30 cm. long 

 with little diminution of size; stems woody at least at the fruiting season, often sev- 

 eral from one stock, fiexuous-ascending, putting forth one or two branches from the 

 corbel-like expansion of each node, thus forming a round, bushy head 35 to 40 cm. 

 high; branches slender, flexuous, except the strong subbasal ones not further sub- 

 divided; stems and branches elastic, with a thin bark upon breakage splitting into 

 strips, brown at maturity, finely pubcrulent with crisped hairs, the internodes short at 

 the base, in the middle 4 to 5 cm. long, above reduced to 3 or 4 cm.; leaves numerous, 

 with a thick petiole 2 mm. long or under, this puberulent like the stem but not brown; 

 leaf blade rarely if ever lobed, from broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, the better 

 developed 45 to 60 mm. long, 12 to 25 mm. broad, blunt but mucronate at the apex, 

 rounded at the base; toward the extremities and on weak branches considerably 

 smaller and rather less abruptly narrowed below; all the leaves glabrous above but 

 with some short hairs on the veins beneath, firm in texture, the margin entire, some- 

 what revolute, five-nerved below, two nerves lost above the middle, strongly reticu- 

 late, the veins prominulous on both sides, especially beneath, the ultimate veinlets, 

 however, obscure, the reticulation thus appearing lesB fine than in C. ochroleuca; 

 flowers not seen, few, single at the ends of the principal branches, these never exceeded 

 by their own subdivisions, hence the flowers never in a fork; fruiting heads on pedun- 

 cles 1.5 to 2 cm. long, the cluster of achenes 7 or 8 mm. long, a little broader; achenes 

 12 to 18, rimmed as in C. ochroleuca, etc., oblique, the body 5 mm. long, copiously 

 soft-pubescent, the hairs of the nucleal portion often longer and longitudinally placed, 

 the tails 18 to 25 mm. long, their barbs silky, of a bright rusty yellow. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 494534, collected at Millboro, Bath 

 County, Virginia, altitude 500 meters, September 3, 1906, by E. S. Steele. It grows 

 on disintegrating shale. Several specimens were preserved, of which four were 

 mounted for the National Herbarium. 



This plant was presumed to be the same as that known from Cates Mountain, White 

 Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, but upon comparison was found to be quite differ- 

 ent, though of the same group. The National Herbarium has four specimens of 

 the Cates Mountain plant, all in the vernal stage. These have the leaves relatively 

 small and rather more tapering at the base, but do not exhibit any decisive difference 

 from C. ochroleuca. Another West Virginia specimen (not more definitely located, 

 F. V. Coville in 1890) has ripe heads which are smaller and whiter tailed than those of 



