V. 



36 



I 



though perhaps if one of each had been shown to a botanist who 



# J 



knew nothing of variation in this genus and had never seen the 

 intermediates, he would unhesitatingly have classed them as 

 species. Two of the forms fell under the general definition of C. 

 pallida var. occidentalism Gray, having the bracts white-tipped. 

 The first, most like ordinary acuminata of the valley, I will call f 

 lobata. The bracts are mostly 3-lobed, pale greenish, white at 

 ends. The upper leaves have lateral lobes. The second may be 

 named f. iincta^ showing as it does the first indication of crimson- 

 purple in this species. The lip is scarcely half the length of the 

 galea; the bracts are broad, 5-lobed or cut and tinged with 

 purplish. They are white at the ends. The leaves are entire. 

 These two forms, although peculiar enough, are recognizable as 

 Varities o{ pallida. But growing with them we have the third, a 

 shorter crimson-purple bracted plant, as different from aciiniinata 

 as can well be — the variety Haydeni oi Gray. With the interme- 

 diate forms growing all together, one can see how Haydeni may 

 be really a variety of pallida; and yet compare typical Haydeni 

 with typical acuminata of the valley, and the relation seems 

 almost impossible. One plant tall, with pale bracts and entire 

 leaves — the other small, its inflorescence depresssed, its bracts 

 purple, and its leaves often much divided ! It is possible, tod, as 

 one must admit, that the supposed intermediate forms lobata and 

 tinctd are really hybrids, which from reversion and variability 

 are different in their characters. Yet C. linaricefolia has shown 



■ 



how scarlet may change to crimson without any hybridization 

 being anyway probable, and the variation of Haydeni from 

 acuminata is after all only the usual variation of species in this 

 genus, carried to extremes. But again, the two forms of //;/- 

 aricefolia do not intcrmixj while Haydeni and even acuminata 

 itself grow together, which favors the idea of their being distinct 

 as species. At timber line (12,000 feet alt.), Haydeni is abun- 

 dant while occidentalis sparingly occurs, and even examples of 

 acufninata which I could not distinguish from those of four 

 thousand feet below. Above timber Hne, the mountain side is 



Haydi 



When I 



sat down I gathered all I could hold in my hands without moving 

 from my seat, but, unfortunately, when pressed, they lose most 





