1912] Blake,— Forms of Peltandra virginica 103 
small amount in my own herbarium, in which it has been possible 
to distinguish seven forms, differing from each other apparently in 
leaf characters only. 
The forms, in their range of variation strongly suggestive of those 
of Sagittaria latifolia, fall naturally into three groups: one group of 
three forms with broad leaves with short and broad basal lobes or 
ears, another of two forms having narrower, more acute leaves with 
longer, narrower ears, and a third composed of two forms with lanceo- 
late acuminate leaves having very short unequal ears or none at all. 
The two plants treated of by Tidestrom as var. heterophylla (Raf.) 
Tidestrom and var. angustifolia (Raf.) Tidestrom make up this last 
and most aberrant group, with lance-oblong or narrowly lanceolate, 
acuminate leaves tapering or rounded or very shortly and equally 
eared at base. These two plants, Rafinesque's P. heterophyla * 
and P. angustifolia, although very close to one another and un- 
doubtedly intergrading, may perhaps be maintained as distinct formae. 
From Peltandra heterophyla a few apparently transitional speci- 
mens lead to the second pair of formae, possessing distinct but narrow 
basal lobes, and differing among themselves in size of leaf and develop- 
ment of the ears. One of these, a form with pointed generally narrow 
leaves and elongated usually divergent basal lobes often twice as long 
as the breadth of leaf, may possibly be the same as P. hastata Raf., 
with “leaves equal in length oblong, hastate cordate acuminate, 
lobes subacute”; the probability of this has not however seemed to 
me sufficient to justify the adoption of the name. Rafinesque re- 
marks that his plant has several seeds, hence, “is a Leucospatha like 
the next,” which is P. alba Raf. (now called P. sagittifolia (Mx.) Raf.), 
the type of the well distinguished subgenus Leucospatha Raf., and a 
plant to whose normal leaves the description just quoted well applies. 
Arum virginicum as understood by Elliott, considered by Rafinesque 
identical with his P. hastata, is not by Elliott's description to be dis- 
tinguished from plants of the ordinary form with hastate basal lobes. 
The third group, comprising two forms beside the type of the 
species, is distinguished from the last by its broad leaves with distinct 
but short and broad ears. The most extreme of these, a form with 
very broad leaves nearly equilaterally triangular, and with obtuse or 
often subacute basal lobes, seems to be identical with Rafinesque's P. 
1 This orthography was apparently always employed by Rafinesque in the numer- 
ous cases where this name was applied to new “species” in the ‘‘ New Flora.” 
