Saag T J 
128 Rhodora [JuLy 
pod, smooth, and brightly tinted on one or two sides with pink, 
darkening sometimes to maroon. The latter has almost always’ more 
seeds than the former, sometimes six or seven. It is a very beautiful 
and showy shrub, on account of its brightly colored fruit. 
“The lower leaflets of the common form are distinctly oblique at 
the base, and not far from sessile. Those of the odd one are not at 
all oblique, are darker in hue, somewhat longer, and are longer stalked. 
The two kinds are much more unlike in general appearance than I can 
well describe. The odd one is much more profuse in flowers and fruit 
— but this may have no bearing. Its pods are borne in dense masses.” 
At the suggestion of Dr. St. John (who studied the fruiting material 
first submitted) the matter was held in abeyance until flowers could 
be secured for comparison. Mr. Brigham has now sent specimens 
of both the typical and aberrant forms and writes as follows concern- 
ing them: “I made an examination of the flowers a day or two ago 
and it seems to me the structure of those of both specimens is identical 
except that the odd one has smaller flowers; the ordinary form, grow- 
ing within a few feet of the other, came into bloom about a week ahead 
of it. The flowers of the common form are entirely devoid of any 
maroon or purplish tint. It is curious that the maroon coloring so 
conspicuous in the mature fruit of the odd kind should appear so 
strongly in the flower-buds.” 
Study of these fruiting and flowering specimens has failed to dis- 
close other differences than those so carefully noted by Mr. Brigham, 
and although these differences are essentially vegetative in character 
they may be taken as indicating a distinct species, since they are 
apparently very constant, as shown by the following quotation from 
Mr. Brigham. 
“I have found three good-sized shrubs of the variety, in a location 
several miles from that in which the first one was obtained. They 
were growing among other shrubs of the typical form, from which I 
conclude that surrounding conditions of soil, moisture and exposure 
do not at all account for the variation. 
“In addition to the plants mentioned above, I also located, late 
last fall, in a woodland some miles out, a solitary Staphylea which 
showed a still more marked divergence from the type in fruit and what 
remained of the leaves. I have ransacked many thickets and brook- 
sides about Toledo to see if I could find a plant or plants which would 
show an intermediate stage between the two forms, but I have found 
none.” 
