16 Rhodora [January 



Along the Alaskan coast from Sitka to Kodiak Island, while north- 

 ward and on the mountains inland typical IVormskjoldii occurs. 



10. Veronica serpyllifolia L. 



Veronica serpyllifolia L., Sp. PI. 12. 1753. "Habitat in Europa 

 & America septentrionali ad vias, agros." Specimen in the Linnean 

 Herbarium, and plant cited in the Flora Suecica as occurring "in 

 pascuis stcrilioribus riguis frequens, " are evidently of the species now 

 considered. 



Meadows, barrens and open woodland, from Newfoundland and 

 Ontario to Minnesota, South Carolina and Missouri, mostly com- 

 mon; British Columbia; Costa Rica; Jamaica; Venezuela. Intro- 

 duced from western Eurasia, or perhaps also native, in which case 

 our plant, which is not montane, would appear to have been indepen- 

 dently derived from the wide-spread mountain variety, humifusa. 

 10a. Veronica serpyllifolia humifusa (Dickson) Vahl. 



Veronica humifusa Dickson in Trans. Linn. Soc. 2: 288. 1794. 



"I found [it] upon very high mountains, and under wet shady rocks 

 [Scotland. James Dickson in 1789]." Description not intended to 

 apply to the variety now considered, but to a depressed form of it. 

 Also is inaccurate (as stated by me in Torreya 19: 166. 1919) in 

 calling for a plant with leaves often in threes and fours, a condition 

 which I have not observed within this species. However this must 

 be a form of serpyllifolia, and this name has long been current in 

 British floras for denoting an alpine more pubescent depressed variety 

 of that species. Surely the depressed habit must prove ecologic, 

 but, as understood long ago by Sir J. E. Smith (El. Brit. 1: 19. 

 1800), there is a hirtous V. serpyllifolia in the upland, "in montosis." 

 Four specimens in Herb. Columbia University, collected along streams 

 in the Clava Mountains, Forfarshire, Scotland, show well this variety. 

 The stems are but 5 cm. long, ascending or even erect at apex, and 

 above are pubescent with spreading hairs. That the plants are but 

 dwarves of this wide-spread variety is confirmed by their obviously 

 large corollas. The plants are so dwarfed that, due to the crowding 

 of the pairs, the leaves might seem whorl ed. 4 American plants 

 from high altitudes become likewise dwarf and spreading. 



} r eroniea ncglecta F. W. Schmidt, Fl. Boem. 1: 12. 1794. De- 

 scription not seen, but in Roemer & Schultes, Syst. Veg. 1: 102. 

 1817, we are informed that neglecta is "hirsuta, pilis brevibus con- 

 fertis," while Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv. 529. 1837, terms it a 

 "forma maior, fol. ovatis." This combined description surely 

 indicates our plant. 



4 Prof. Fernald has suggested that Dickson intended to describe his plant as bear- 

 ing three or four pairs of leaves. 



