148 Rhodora k [JuLy 
or fewer on leaders; 20-45, mostly 25-40, teeth on each side on 
average leaves) and acute but open sinuses; when young densely 
white tomentose beneath, nearly glabrous above, less than half 
grown at flowering time and still unfolded, at maturity usually deep 
green, rarely glaucous, glabrous except petiole and lower portion of 
midrib, the latter prominent; primary veins in average leaves 10-15 
(mostly 11-13) pairs, somewhat irregular, rather close together, 
slightly upcurved toward the margin, becoming indistinct and anasto- 
mosing in the outer third, uppermost veins widely spreading; mature 
petioles 8-15 mm. long: racemes short, dense, upright, terminal and 
many lateral, 2.5-6 cm. long; pedicels and axis silky-tomentose, 
lower pedicels 8-18 mm. long, scarcely longer in fruit (10-22 mm. long): 
flowers rather small; petals from obovate-oblong to oblanceolate or 
linear, 7-9 (10) mm. long, usually narrower than in A. stolonifera: 
hypanthium campanulate, 3-5 mm. in diameter, tomentose at the 
base or all over, on young fruit still campanulate and not conspicu- 
ously constricted: sepals tomentose within, triangular, acute, 1.5- 
2.5 (3) mm. long, erect or irregularly spreading: summit of the ovary 
glabrous or very rarely somewhat woolly: fruit nearly black, glaucous, 
moderately sweet and agreeable. Fias. 5 A-H. 
Flowers appearing early with those of A. laevis; fruit ripe in June. 
Non-calcareous swamps or low grounds in the coastal plain from 
southern Maine to South Carolina and possibly Georgia." 
This is a very characteristic plant along the coast. In Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut, where it is quite common, the bushy habit 
enables one to recognize it at a distance when it is in flower, since the 
peculiar alder-like habit is quite characteristic. "The calyx and hy- 
panthium of this species represent a distinct type, since it is the only 
species, except possibly A. Bartramiana, in which the sepals do not 
normally turn back in some fashion. About Boston, where the writer 
has observed this plant for several seasons, the short stubby sepals are 
quite generally erect, or only irregularly spreading, even until the fruit 
is mature. This species, too, is the only one in which the lanation 
of the summit of the ovary varies greatly, and all gradations from a 
completely glabrous condition, which seems most common; toa 
sparsely lanate covering may occasionally be found. All other 
characters, however, remain fairly constant. At present, there is no 
good reason to believe that this variation in the woolly covering of 
the ovary is due to hybridization. 
1 Ashe says of his A. obovalis, which seems to be this species: — '''T his plant is not 
uncommon along the edges of swamps on loose soils from Smithfield, N. C., southward 
along the coast to Augusta, Ga., and according to Sargent to Mobile, Ala." The 
writer has not seen plants from so far south. 
