STEELE— NEW PLANTS FROM EASTERN UNITED STATES. 367 



banks of the Potomac above Plmnmers Island, Montgomery County, Maryland, but 

 it grows freely on the outskirts of the city, and at Tacoma Park, Hyattsville, etc. It 

 has also been collected by me near Eagle Rock, Botetourt County, and on a shale cliff 

 at Millboro, Bath County, Virginia. It is therefore likely to be distributed over 

 a large part of Maryland and Virginia. Notwithstanding its local abundance, the 

 National Herbarium contains little if any material outside of my own collections, 

 collectors having perhaps taken it as an imperfect biennis. Doctor Greene noticed 

 the plant independently. It is fair to assume that this is rare or wanting in other 

 herbaria, whence its failure to find a place in the manuals. 



This plant was long regarded by me as Oenothera parvifiora L. In the original 

 description the distinction from 0. biennis turns upon the small flowers, as indicated 

 by the name, and upon the stem being smooth and subvillose instead of sca- 

 brous, with the secondary difference of having the margin of the fruit summit 8-fid 

 instead of 4-fid. In edition 2 of the Species" much fuller notes are given, including 

 the statement that the stem is sprinkled with hairs", but without tubercles at their 

 base. Now it is a fact that the present species often has the tips of the capsule seg- 

 ments distinctly 2-lobed, though this character is not uniformly maintained. But it 

 is also true that the stem is normally supplied with tubercles, bright red or greenish, 

 and evidence is wanting that these are ever entirely wanting below the inflorescence. 

 On the other hand, again, if we accept the description in the second edition of the 

 species as proof, the infraterminal position of the calyx segment appendages makes 

 strongly for identification with 0. parvijlora, and there is no other discrepancy except 

 that the leaf form of the latter and that of 0. biennis are both given as ovate-lanceolate, 

 whereas the leaves of my plant are decidedly narrower than those of 0. biennis. 



It was only at a late hour (through the monition of Mr. H. H. Bartlett, a thorough 

 student of this group and independently acquainted with this species) that I became 

 aware of Miss Vail's description & of supposed 0. parvijlora. There are several points 

 in the description which suggest a species different from the present; the cauline hairs 

 of my plant are scarcely spreading and are many of them tuberculate; the leaves do 

 not tend much to be oblong and are not approximately denticulate above; the flowers 

 often exceed the bracts, which are not divaricate, and the petals are delicate, not firm; 

 the capsules are essentially glabrous. With present light I am not ready to offer a 

 positive conclusion as to the status of the local plant. 



Solidago gillmani (A. Gray). 



Solidago humilis gillmani A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 17: 191. 1882. 



Solidago racemosa gillmani Fernald, New Gray's Man. 791. 1908. 



Stems sometimes ascending from flat sand, then 50 to 60 cm. long, sometimes reclin- 

 ing on the sides of dunes, then much lengthened, sometimes to 110 cm., normally stout, 

 but especially so in the low forms, purpled at least toward the base, glabrous to the 

 inflorescence, here, with the branches, puberulent, especially toward the extremities; 

 leaves of the sterile tufts 12 cm. long or under, the blade and petiole of about equal 

 length, the latter margined and ciliate with delicate white hairs, the blades oval, the 

 larger 18 to 22 mm. broad, the summit ovate or triangular-ovate, blunt, mucronate, 

 the base somewhat more tapering; or, especially in the smaller leaves, the blade more 

 oblong, the summit rounded, the whole leaf truly spatula te; lower stem leaves rarely 

 14 cm., often 8 to 10 cm. long, the proper blade much as in the basal tufts but rela- 

 tively longer, 15 to 25 mm. broad; following leaves gradually reduced, sessile by a 

 cuneate base, the uppermost lanceolate; both the basal and the stem leaves, except 

 the upper, crenate-serrate, or sometimes the teeth acute; all the leaves thick, coria- 

 ceous, dull green, glabrous except the scabrous margin, coarsely reticulate, the lines 

 strong, rather dark, impressed above, prominulous beneath; inflorescence rather 



a Page 492. 



6 In Macdougal, Vail, and Shull, Mutations, Variations, and Relationships of the 

 Oenotheras, p. 71. 1907. (Carnegie Institution.) 



