1923] Weatherby,—Critical Plants of Atlantic North America 21 
Urban, Symb. Antill. iv. 211 (1905), reduces P. densiflorum to 
P. glabrum Willd. Typical P. glabrum of India, however, differs in 
its smaller perianth, which is nearly or quite destitute of glandular 
punctation: it seems best considered a distinct species. 
The Grimes collection contains excellent material of P. densiflorum, 
already known, in the North, from southern New Jersey and Delaware. 
CHELONE Grimesii, n. sp., radice ignota; caule simplice, circa 14 
dm. alto, minute granulato-puberulo; foliis omnino sessilibus apice 
acutis vel acuminatis basi rotundatis argute serratis supra viridibus 
subtus glaucescentibus, medianis ovatis 8-8.5 cm. longis 3-4 cm. 
latis, inferioribus lanceolatis valde reductis, superioribus ovatis 
superne gradatim decrescentibus, supremis utrinque minute puberulis; 
costis foliorum subtus puberulis; bracteis superficie puberulis, margine 
minute ciliolatis; corollis 2.5-2.8 cm. longis, "purpureis." 
Root not seen; stem simple, apparently about 14 dm. high; leaves 
all completely sessile, acute or acuminate, rounded at base, sharply 
serrate, green above, more or less glaucous beneath, the median 
ovate, 8-8.5 cm. long, 3-4 em. wide, the lower lanceolate, much re- 
duced in size, the upper ovate, gradually decreasing upward; stem, 
midribs of the leaves beneath, both surfaces of the uppermost leaves, 
and bracts minutely granular-puberulent; bracts minutely ciliolate; 
corolla 2.5-2.8 em. long, purple, according to the collector's notes.— 
Wooded swamp near Elko, Henrico Co., Virginia, Aug. 8, 1921, 
Grimes no. 4189. 
Since there appear to be no floral characters, except color, by 
which the species of Chelone can be separated, I have confined the 
description of C. Grimesti to those vegetative characters which are 
most distinctive. It is apparently the plant figured by Miller, Ic. Pl. 
17 (1760), though that is represented as having very large upper 
leaves. But all the leaves shown are ovate and are not only pictured, 
but described, as sessile. Miller states that his plant was sent from 
Virginia by Clayton and that it is the latter’s “Chelone floribus 
speciosis pulcherrimis colore rosae damascenae." This last appears 
to have been a temporary opinion; in both the 1759 and 1768 editions 
of his Dictionary, Miller assigns the Clayton phrase-name to a plant 
with petiolate leaves (C. purpurea Mill.), which is generally referred 
to C. obliqua. Whatever the correct disposition of Clayton's name, 
it is, in view of the small amount of collecting which has been done 
in southeastern Virginia, not impossible that he did find the presumably 
local C. Grimesii, and send it to Europe where it was cultivated and 
figured by Miller; that it died out of English gardens and was lost 
sight of until found again now in Clayton's region. 
