170 Rhodora [SEPTEMBER 
nesseensis Mohr, as shown by his description and his type specimen 
(now in the U. S. Nat Herb.) collected at Sheffield Landing, Ala., 
June, 1893, and labelled “ v. tennesseensis" by him. 
The status of this form is not wholly clear to me; but the specimens 
at hand appear to be either luxuriant individuals or late, semi-sterile 
shoots. The latter interpretation is borne out by the following facts. 
Some of the specimens, including Mohr's type, were collected in June 
and July, well past the usual flowering time of the species. A sheet 
collected near Baltimore, Md., July 7, 1897 (U. S.), is labelled by the 
collector, Adam Seitz, “Stellaria pubera Michx. in its second form." 
A specimen collected at Waynesville, N. C., by T. G. Harbison in 
May, 1897 (G), shows a large-leaved shoot in flower and two stems 
of entirely typical S. pubera in immature fruit proceeding from the 
same root. From the data at hand, I cannot see that this form de- 
serves any taxonomic recognition, 
West of the Alleghanies, ranging (so far as the specimens seen 
indicate) from northern Alabama to southern Ohio and southeastern 
Indiana, is found a much more marked variant. In it at least the 
lower leaves of the flowering stems and all but the uppermost leaves 
of the sterile ones have the oval to broadly ovate blades abruptly 
contracted into margined petioles or petiolar bases 1-2 cm. long. 
The sepals are 7.5-11 mm. long, acute or acuminate; they equal or 
exceed the petals and at least the outer are conspicuously long- 
ciliate on the lower half. This, as shown by the description and 
collections cited, is Stellaria pubera, subsp. silvatica Béguinot. Small's 
excellent diagnosis leaves no doubt that it is also his Alsine ten- 
nesseensis, to which he has erroneously applied Mohr's name. 
The characters of pubescence and leaf-form adduced by Béguinot 
do not correlate in a large series of specimens; those of calyx and 
leaves, however, are associated with a high degree of consistency. 
The plant constitutes a well-marked geographie variety. Perhaps 
it even deserves the specific rank accorded it by Small; but its char- 
acters seem hardly positive enough for that. Occasional individuals 
of otherwise typical S. pubera show a tendency to develop petiolar 
leaf-bases; in a few cases the sepals are narrow, acute, and more or 
less ciliate; and in length of sepals different specimens show an un- 
broken progression from 5 to 11 mm. One plant in particular, col- 
lected by A. H. Curtiss in Fairfax Co., Va. (G), and showing ovate, 
