GENUS ANOTITES. 97 
A Proposed New (Genus, Anotites. 
Never since thirty-five years ago, when 1 first began to learn 
the flora of the Rocky Mountains, was I reconciled to the doc- 
trine that what was then, and is still called Silene Menziesii, is 
truly of that genus. Thereis no member or group of Silene 
with which it comes at all near being at accord, whether viewed 
as to its habit or characters; and it would be a Sve//arta—or 
Alstne—but for the fact that its capsule is five-toothed rather 
than three-valved ; and that one character of the capsule alone 
seems to have determined its place among the Silenes in the 
book in which it was published; the author at the same time 
conceding that it was not well in place as a member of that 
genus. Hooker, as it seems, virtually admitted it to be zi gen- 
eris when, being about to publish it as tentatively a Silene, he 
says: “This species is totally unlike any other with which I am 
acquainted, somewhat resembling a slender state of Saponaria 
ocymotdes ` nor indeed does it accord with any of the divisional 
characters given by Dr. Candolle ” ( Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. i. 91). 
As an excellent generic type, its characteristics may be brief- 
ly indicated as follows: 
ANOTITES. Perennial herbs of low stature growing singly in 
tufts, or forming extensive colonies by means of connected long 
horizontal rootstocks. Leafy stems usually freely dichotomous, 
the flowers scattered or else in leafy-bracted cymes; the whole 
habit, inflorescence, and small white flowers those A/sine (or Stel- 
laria). Petals bifid, without appendages. Capsule subcrusta- 
ceous, equalling the calyx, 5-toothed. Seeds small, numerous. 
By modes of growth, peculiarities of inflorescence, forms of 
foliage, characters of pubescence, etc., a number of species 
bespeak recognition, each from its own geographic and climatic 
province within a vastly extensive region—almost the whole of 
far-western North America. 
Coe SEO S 
LEAFLETS, VoL. i. pp. 97-112, Oct. 6, 1905. 
