PAYSON—NORTH AMERICAN AQUILEGIA. 157 
knob of nectary small; stamens well exserted; styles 10 to 12 mm. long; ovaries 
pubescent and glandular; mature follicles unknown. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 537658, collected at Sitting Bull Falls, 
Alamo National Forest, southern New Mexico, altitude about 1,650 meters, May 25, 
1916, by W. R. Chapline (no. 544). 
This species is closely related to A. chrysantha and is probably no more than a local 
offshoot from that species. It is apparently deserving of specific rank, this to be 
based on its small flowers with subequal sepals and lamine and on the small leaflets. 
The altitude suggests that this plant is native in a more arid region than is its parent, 
A. chrysantha. It probably blooms earlier than the related plant does. 
25. Aquilegia longissima A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 17: 317, 1882. Puate 14, 
Stems about 90 cm. high; basal and lower stem leaves similar, triternate, the 
partial petioles very long; leaflets deeply lobed, with narrow segments; flowers erect, 
pale yellow; sepals narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, broadly spreading, about 2.5 cm. 
long, exceeding the narrowly spatulate petals by 2 to3 mm.; lamin spreading 
horizontally, rounded at apex; spurs filiform, hanging, 10 to 15 cm. long, the orifice 
narrow (about 2 mm.). 
TYPE LOCALITY: Caracol Mountains, south of Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico. 
Rance: Ravines in the mountains of southwestern Texas and adjacent Mexico. 
REFERENCES: A. Gray, Bot. Gaz. 8: 295.1883. S. Wats. Gard. & For. 1: 31. 1888, 
Coulter, Contr. U. 8. Nat. Herb. 2: 9. 1891. Jones, Zoe 4: 257. 1893. Robinson, 
Syn. Fl]. 1: 45. 1895. Davis, Minn. Bot. Stud. 2: 341. 1899. 
The only specimen seen was collected by Edward Palmer in Coahuila, Mexico. 
Aquilegia longissima is most closely related to A. chrysantha, yet it differs from it 
in several important respects besides the length of the spurs. The blades of the 
petals, which in A. chrysantha are often widely spreading, in this species are bent 
nearly at right angles to the spurs and so assume a horizontal position. The sepals 
in longissima are narrower and exceed the petals by much less than in chrysantha 
and the flowers in longissima are produced in the fall when the flowers of the related 
species are much past their prime. 
Aquilegia longissima is probably the most peculiar and interesting as well as the 
most highly developed species of Aquilegia. It is the southernmost known species 
of the section Macroplectrae. Its most remarkable character is, of course, its extraor- 
dinary spur length. This unusual length must have been developed in conjunc- 
tion with the proboscis of some insect, and in this connection Doctor Trelease ! says 
that the spurs of this, as well as the very long tubes of some other southwestern plants, 
might well be drained by Amphonyzx antaeus Drury, 2 moth which possesses a pro- 
boscis over 5 inches in length. It would be interesting if some one who has an oppor- 
tunity would test the truth of Doctor Trelease’s conjecture. In the eastern United 
States A. longissima will not develop seeds unless artificially pollinated, thus show- 
ing its dependence on some animal not native to this section of the country. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 14.—Aquilegia lonyissima A. Gray. From a cut in Garden and Forest 1:31. 
1888, Slightly less than natural size. 
1 Bot. Gaz. 8: 319. 1883. 
23725°—18——3 
