STEELE NEW PLANTS FROM EASTERN UNITED STATES. 369 



it differs in being a distinctly taller and heavier plant with a glabrous stem and with 

 still thicker and more coriaceous leaves which tend to expand into a rhombic-oval 

 blade instead of a narrower oblong one and which are more coarsely and strongly 

 reticulate, and in its larger heads with broader, more oblong (less tapering) tegules, 

 Solidago randii, further, often has the inflorescence glutinous which is not apparently 

 the case with S. gillmani. The distribution of the one on coastal sands and of the 

 other upon ledges or earth in rocky and mountainous regions certainly affords a strong 

 presumption of specific distinctness. 



It remains to 'justify the use of this name. Inasmuch as Gillman seems to have 

 been the first to take note of the species, and since the name gillmani has come into 

 use for the normal plant in spite of the misleading description, it seems desirable to 

 perpetuate it. The risk of misapplication I regard as very slight. 



Solidag-o harrisii Steele, sp. nov. 



Plant 30 to 80 cm. (said to be sometimes 150 cm.) high; Btem assurgent, somewhat 

 arcuate and flexuous, of ordinary thickness, smooth, finely striate; stem leaves not 

 crowded, the larger mainly 10 to 20 cm. long, the blade broadly elliptical-ovate, 5 to 

 10 cm. long, 3 to 6 cm. broad, abruptly short-acuminate and laterally curved at the 

 apex, below abruptly contracted into a broadly winged, cuneate petiole, "full" at 

 the sinuses and commonly folded in pressing, the same less conspicuously the case 

 at the base of the acumination, beneath, and less boldly above, showing two well- 

 defined pairs of slender, rather prominent veins, a third pair less well defined, the 

 intervals densely reticulate, each wing of the petiole with a pair of nerve-like veins 

 carried down from above; succeeding leaves gradually smaller, becoming in the 

 inflorescence lanceolate or nearly so with merely a narrowed base; leaves of the fre- 

 quent sterile tufts numerous, similar to the lower stem leaves but often larger, their 

 petioles, as also those of the lowermost stem leaves, frequently longer than the blades; 

 all the leaves very coriaceous, thick, when young bright green and shining and with 

 a suggestion of fleshiness, permanently lucid, slightly paler beneath, smooth except, 

 the hispidulous-scabrous margin; inflorescence pyramidal, one-sided, loose, the 

 branches stiffly arcuate (not at all drooping\ at least the branchlets and peduncles 

 puberulent; heads near the extremity of the branches single, mostly, however, in 

 racemules of three to five, these and the single heads secundly racemose, crowded 

 but on the longer branches confined to the outer half; heads 5 to 6 mm. high; tegules 

 coriaceous, the middle ones occasionally rather narrow and sharp, normally oblong 

 or somewhat tapering above with a deltoid, ovate, or still more rounded tip, in the 

 fresh state boat-shaped and with two green lines confluent under the apex, in the 

 dry state still somewhat keeled and in variable degree blackish green above; rays 

 about 5, 2 to 2.5 mm. long, elliptical in form, of a deep yellow; disk flowers 9 to 15; 

 aehenes strigose. 



Type in the IT. S. National Herbarium, no. 615507, collected at Cumberland, Mary- 

 land, June 20, 1910, by Edward Harris, on cliffs and hillsides of the Hamilton and 

 Clinton shales. Five other specimens of this date were furnished by Mr. Harris 

 besides 5 of June 14, 2 of July 9-16, and 8 of August 10 of the same year; also one 

 from the same locality by J. E. Harned, September 12, 1910. 

 The other collections known are: 

 West Virginia: Clayey Mountain (north of Sweetsprings), E. S, Steele 305, Sep- 

 tember 14, 1903 . 

 Virginia: Millboro, Bath County, E. S. Steele, September 6, 11, 19, 1906; August 

 21, September 17, 1907; Augusta Springs, Augusta County, E. S. Steele, August 

 29, 1908. 

 At the first of these localities, the plant occurred on clay at the base of the mountain ; 

 at Millboro, on clay at the base of shale hills and also on slopes of crumbling shale; 

 at Augusta Springs, on shale at the base of Great North Mountain. The Clayey Moun- 

 70272°— vol 13, pt 10—11 5 



