1916] Weatherby and Blake, — Galium pilosum and Varieties 193 



kraut" for a species whose habitat is still given as Virginia. Pursh ' 

 retains the name but gives a description applicable only to G. punc- 

 ticulosum Michx., which in fact he cites as a synonym, and has G. 

 pilosum as a distinct species. Pursh's action consequently cannot 

 be taken as determining the application of the name, since he asso- 

 ciates it (in the form bcrmudianum) with a plant not an element of 

 the original Linnaean species. With Torrey, 2 Elliott 3 and other 

 early writers on American botany, G. bermudense or G. bcrmudianum 

 was a species of considerable uncertainty. In the Prodromus 4 G. 

 bcrmudianum Pursh was referred to G. puncticulosum Michx., of 

 which G. pilosum was made a variety. In Torrey & Gray's Flora 

 of North America 5 " G. bermudense Linn. spec. 1. p. 105, as to syn. 

 Gronov., but not of Pluk. aim. t. 248" was referred to G. pilosum, var. 

 jmncticulosum, and the statement was made that "the name of G. 

 Bermudense should be retained for the 'Rubia tetraphylla glabra, 

 latiore folio, Bermudensis' etc. of Plukenet." In the Synoptical 

 Flora, 6 however, " G. Bermudense, L. Spec. i. 105, as to syn. Pluk." 

 was referred to typical G. pilosum and " G. Bermudense, L. 1. c. as to 

 syn. Gronov." to its var. puncticulosum. In Britton & Brown's Illus- 

 trated Flora, ed. 1 7 G. bermudense appears as a doubtful synonym of 

 G. pilosum, but in the second edition 8 we find G. bermudense displac- 

 ing G. hispidulum Michx. as the name for that relbunioid Galium. 



To recapitulate: — Galium bermudense L. as originally published 

 included G. pilosum, G. circaezans, and Bclbunium ht/pocarpum, all 

 of which would be excluded by its description, and its name was in 

 contradiction with the habitat assigned it. It has since been identi- 

 fied, in whole or in part, with Galium pilosum, G. puncticulosum, G. 

 hispidulum, and Relbunium hypocarpum. It seems to the writers 

 that under the circumstances the name Galium bermudense L. had 

 best be relegated forever -to the limbo of nomina confusa. 



The varieties of Galium pilosum will then stand as follows: — 



* Stem from densely pilose all over to sparsely sprcading-pilose or 

 sprcading-hispid-pilose on the angles below. 



G. pilosum Ait. Hort. Kew i. 145 (1789); Willd. Sp. PI. i. pt. 2. 599 

 (1798); Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 104 (1814); T. & G. Fl. N. Am. ii. 



1 Fl. Am. Sept. i. 104 (1814). . * ii. 24 (1841). 



2 Fl. N. & Mid. U. S. i. 1G9 (1824). « i. pt. 2. 37 (1884). 



3 Sk. i. 196 (1816). » iii. 221 (1898). 

 « iv. 601 (1830). s iii. 266 (1913). 



