132 Rhodora [JuLy 
The plant has been known to botanists, however, for many years. 
It is without doubt the form described by Dr. Gray in the second 
edition of the Manual as Zysímachia stricta, var. producta. Dr. Gray's 
only specimen was collected in Michigan, but he refers to his variety a 
portion of Michaux's Z. racemosa * from New York. From Michaux's 
description alone there is little to suggest Dr. Gray's var. producta. 
Michaux describes his plant as having opposite leaves, and he cited a 
figure of Plukenet's? which is obviously the common Z. sźrícta, with its 
definitely terminal raceme shorter than in the var. producta. In exam- 
ining the Michaux herbarium, however, Dr. Gray noted that his speci- 
men of Lysimachia racemosa is a “strange and monstrous form of Z. 
stricta, with a raceme eighteen inches long, ped[icel] one inch, twice 
the length of the foliaceous bract, the whole terminated by a little tuft 
of bracteal leaves. Pedicels also in the axils of the upper leaves.” 
This plant is probably identical with Dr. Gray's var. Producfa, and 
the specimens which have recently puzzled New England botanists. 
Lamarck had formerly described as Z. racemosa? a plant with lanceo- 
late opposite leaves which is clearly the older Z. s¢ricéa, Ait.,* and, in 
his description, Lamarck cited the same Plukenet figure which was 
referred to by Michaux as representing his own Z. racemosa. It ap- 
pears, then, that the species of Michaux was a confusion of two plants: 
one the true Z. strícta, Ait., the other the var. producta, Gray. 
The plant has apparently been mentioned occasionally in local 
lists and notes (Peck's 47th Rep. 31, for example) as a variety of 
L. stricta. The latter species, however, in its typical form has the 
terminal raceme rarely 2.5 dm. long, beginning definitely above the 
upper stem-leaves, which are lanceolate, glaucous and hardly veiny 
beneath, and opposite. In the variety producta, on the other hand, 
the leaves, not otherwise unlike those of Z. s//;c/a, are often subverti- 
cillate or definitely verticillate in 3's, 4's, or 5's, asin Z. guadrifolia. ‘The 
pedicels are borne in the axils of the upper leaves as in Z. guadrifola, 
but unlike that species the raceme is very elongated, the upper leaves 
passing gradually to the floral-leaves or leafy bracts. Though in its 
inflorescence and especially in the axillary lower pedicels the plant 
is somewhat like Z. guadrifolia, it is in other respects quite as distinct 
from that as from Z. s¢ricfa, with its definite terminal raceme. In 
its very elongated bracteate raceme the plant is of course strikingly 
I Michx. Fl. i. 128. 2 Pluk. Phytog. t. 428, f. 4. 
3 Lam. Dict. iii. 570. 4 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 1, i. 199. 
