1910] Sheldon,— Menyanthes in West Virginia 11 
have noted the fact that Weddell had already described B. cylindrica, 
var. Drummondiana (B. Drummondiana) with the same peculiarities 
of foliage as those which characterize var. scabra Porter. A specimen 
of Drummond's no. 267 (the type number of Weddell's species or 
varlety) is in the Gray Herbarium and it is identical with the plant 
of broad distribution on the coastal plain from Nantucket to northern 
Mexico which is generally passing as var. scabra. Although easily 
separated from typical B. cylindrica, the variety often simulates it in 
having the leaves thinner and on longer petioles than in the extreme 
of the variety, and in bogs and open situations the smooth-leaved 
plant often has thick short-petioled leaves which simulate those of the 
variety. It is thus apparent that it is wise to accept Weddell's mature 
judgment and that of Dr. Porter, in regarding the plant as a variety 
of B. cylindrica rather than a distinct species. In fact, Mr. E. P. 
Bicknell, who has often urged that the occurrence of transitional 
forms should not invalidate the title to specific rank of plants which 
in their extremes are easily recognizable, is inclined to follow the con- 
clusion of Weddell and of Porter, for, in his critical notes on The 
Ferns and Flowering Plants of Nantucket, although listing the plant as 
B. scabra (Porter) Small, he adds the note: “Typical examples appear 
very distinct from Boehmeria cylindrica but the two plants seem to run 
together and may prove to be only extreme conditions of one species." ! 
By those who still incline to treat the plant as a species it should be 
known, then, not as Boehmeria scabra (Porter) Small but as B. Drum- 
mondiana Weddell; while by those who feel that the facts of Nature 
are more precisely stated by treating as varieties plants which are 
known freely to intergrade it will be called B. cylindrica (L.) Sw., var. 
Drummondiana Weddell. 
Gray HERBARIUM. 
MENYANTHES TRIFOLIATA IN West VinaiNIA.— While I was on a 
collecting trip, to what was once a spruce and hemlock swamp at 
Cranesville, W. Va., in 1904, my attention was called to a plant grow- 
ing there that no one seemed to know and which was reputed to have 
certain medicinal properties. I did not recognize the plant from the 
description given by the gentleman who inquired about it. I was so 
! Bicknell, Bull. Torr. Bot. Cl. xxxvi. 29 (1909). 
