1924] Blake, —Notes on American Lespedezas 33 
8. Since the time of Torrey & Gray,! the primary division of the 
native American species of Lespedeza has been into two groups; one 
(Section Mulespedeza Torr. & Gray), with two kinds of flowers (com- 
plete but usually infertile flowers in pedunculate to sessile racemes or 
clusters, and apetalous but very fertile flowers, these either in sessile 
axillary clusters or intermixed with the petaliferous ones), calyx 
usually much shorter than the corolla and pod, and violet or purple 
corollas; the other (Section Lespedezaria Torr. & Gray) with the flowers 
all alike and complete in dense spikes or heads, calyx as long as the 
pod or longer, and whitish or ochroleucous corollas bearing a purple 
spot on the banner. These two groups are for the most part well 
defined, although apparently connected by the two little-known 
species Lespedeza Manniana and L. simulata Mackenzie & Bush. 
These have much the appearance of L. capitata, with an inflorescence 
of petaliferous flowers more like that of species of the Eulespedeza 
group, and axillary clusters of apetalous flowers; the sepals are long, 
as in the L. capitata group, and the flowers purple as in the Eulespedeza 
group. 
In his paper on the genus Schindler pointed out that one of the 
traditional differences between the two groups of American species 
—the presence of cleistogamous flowers in the purple-flowered species, 
and their absence in the whitish-flowered species 
has no existence 
in nature. He states? that he has been able to determine the presence 
"an L. hirta 
(in which he includes as a variety L. angustifolia) and L. capitata. In 
gt 
of "apopetale Blüten mit parthenogonischen Früchten 
the specimens of L. hirta, L. capitata, and L. angustifolia examined, 
I have found no flowers with corolla and stamens so greatly reduced 
as is common in the purple-flowered species. In all three species, 
however, it 1s easy to find intermixed in the spikes cleistogamous 
flowers with reduced corolla, strongly hooked style, very short staminal 
sheath, and anthers dehiscing in the bud. The fruits of these cleisto- 
gamous flowers can be distinguished by the very short sheath of the 
persistent stamens and the short hooked style, often with a stamen 
adhering to the stigma. In the very distinet Lespedeza leptostachya 
Engelin.,* the remaining species of this group, the flowers, while 
1! Fi. N. Amer. 12 366-369 1840. 
1 Bot. Jahrb. 49: 574. 1913 
3 The leaves of all Lespedezas are regularly piunately 3-foliolate. Two specimens 
of L. leptostachya in the National Herbarium bear single 4-foliclate leaves and one 
of them has a 5-foliolate leaf. These abnormal leaves represent a combination of 
the pinnate and di-itate modes. the terminal leaflet being borne on a short rachis. 
the others merely petiolulate at the apex of the petiole. 
