156 Rhodora [August 
STUDIES IN CERTAIN NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF 
LATHYRUS. 
FREDERIC K. BUTTERS anp Harop St. JoHn. 
LartayRus venosus Muhl. is a strictly North American species 
which is nearly confined to the eastern half of the continent, as all 
the records by early botanists crediting it to the Rocky Mountains 
or the Pacific Slope have proved to be founded on misconceptions. 
As the species ranges from Georgia to Saskatchewan, it is not surpris- 
ing that it shows considerable variation, and collectors have some- 
times noted a certain discrepancy between their different collections, 
and have commented on it on their labels. Thus we find T. C. Porter 
saying of a certain specimen, “The large stipules puzzle me!” In 
spite of such hints, the writers and compilers of floras generally have 
not recognized or discussed the variability which exists in the size and 
shape of the stipules, the shape of the leaflets, and the character of 
the pubescence. The only exception to this is the treatment by 
Torrey and Gray,' who give a general description covering the species 
and all its variations, and then under this describe two varieties, 
Bandy. Var. £ is said to have “larger oblong-ovate leaflets; stipules 
linear-lanceolate,” and its range is given, “Georgia, Dr. Boykin.” 
We now know this variety from several stations from North Carolina 
to Texas. It has ovate leaflets, linear-lanceolate stipules, slightly 
pilose calyx-tubes, and often a little puberulence on the stems and 
leaflets. i 
The variety y of Torrey and Gray is described as being “ minutely 
downy-pubescent; ....stipules linear lanceolate, . . . .calyx and pedi- 
cels densely pubescent,” and as growing from Saskatchewan to the 
shore of Lake Superior and Illinois, “also N. W. Coast and California, 
ex Hooker.” The record taken from Hooker, crediting this variety 
to California and the Northwest Coast should plainly be excluded as 
belonging to some one, or more than one, of the large purple-flowered 
species of the Pacific slope, which resemble L. venosus, but which are 
amply distinct from that species. After eliminating this western 
element, we can say that we know the variety with linear-lanceolate 
1 Torrey and Gray, Fl. N. Am. i. 274-5 (1838). 
