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Wood 



A Suggestion Concerning Smilax herbacea, L- 



The ablest botanists have hitherto failed to deal conclusively 

 with our common herbaceous Smilax (carrion flower). Wood 

 accepts three species, 5. herbacea, L., S,pedtmcularis, Muhl., and 

 S. lasionenron, Hook. Gray includes these all under S. herbacea, 

 making Muhlenberg's plant barely a variety, and Hooker's a 

 mere form. Chapman agrees with 



berg's species as a good one. Alphonse De Candolle distributes 

 the Linnaean species, as found in North America, into five 

 varieties including the type, two of them equivalent to 5. pcdiiJi- 

 ailaris and 5. lasioneiiro7i. 



Ignoring such fluctuating characters as shape of leaf, degree 

 of pubescence and length of peduncle, I find the following four 

 apparent varieties : 



<^. Peduncles about three, in the axils of bracts below the 

 leaves, which are all in a cluster above, at the summit of the low 

 stem. (Specimens in the Columbia College herbarium.) 



b. Peduncles about six, in the axils of the lowermost leaves; 

 stem tall, leafy and branching above. (Plant collected on New 

 York Island.) 



c. Peduncles about six, in leaf-axils nearly midway of the 

 plant; leaves and branches above and below on the tall stem. 

 (Plant from J. R James, Oxford, O.) 



d. Peduncles numerous, commonly produced from the same 

 axils with the branches, scattered midway and upward on the 

 tall and leafy stem. (Plant from W. A. Kellerman, Manhattan, 

 Kans., and specimens in C. C, Herb.) 



Van a, the simplest form, chiefly southern, the one specially 

 described by Chapman, equals var. ecirrhaia, A. DC. Var. b is 

 "^uch more developed, but the position of the inflorescence is not 

 altered. Var. r., however, shows a decided change in this respect, 

 the new position being exactly analogous to that of the fructifi- 

 <^at]on in Osmunda Claytoniana. In var. d. the species reaches 

 the acme of vigorous development, putting forth freely both re- 

 productive and vee^etative branches from the self-same axils. 



The arrangement of the forms here proposed, although some- 

 ^v^hat promising, is still merely tentative, and botanists will confer a 

 special favor and help settle a sadly confused species, by informing 



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