247 
Descriptions of the Species. 
i - I. Lecuea minor L, 
Lechea minor 1. Sp. Pl. 90 (1753). (Type in Linnean Her- 
barium.) 
Lechea thymifolia Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 77 (1803). (Type in 
Michaux Herabarium.) 
* Lechea Nove-Cesaree Austin ; A. Gray, Man. Ed. 5, 81 (1867). 
(Type in Columbia College Herbarium.) : 
Erect, 1.56 dm. high, freely branching above, more or less pi- 
lose-pubescent with slightly spreading hairs throughout. Branches 
slender, erect, ascending or the lower sometimes spreading ; stem- 
leaves oval or oblong, 8-15 mm. long, 4-7 mm. wide, subacute or 
obtuse, ciliate, the upper smaller; petioles 1-2 mm. long; leaves 
of the radical shoots oval or oblong, obtuse, 6-10 mm. long, 5-6 
mm. wide; panicle usually very leafy; flowers close together, 
somewhat secund ; outer sepals longer than the inner and mostly 
€xceeding the obovoid or globose capsule. 
Occurs in dry fields and thickets, Eastern Massachusetts to 
Florida, west to Michigan and Louisiana. 
Much search has been necessary in order to determine which 
of the forms should be regarded as the true ZL. minor. The 
Species is badly mixed in the Linnean herbarium. There are 
two sheets so marked. The first bears a fruiting specimen of the 
Plant above described, with mature radical leaves, as well as the 
"PPer part of a fruiting plant of what I take up as Z. vél/osa EI, 
together with two Specimens of mature, radical shoots of the same. 
he second sheet carries an immature specimen of L. maritima 
esgett, marked by Sir J. E. Smith “racemulosa Michx.” 
Pinned to this sheet is another, bearing a plant too young for sat- 
sfactory determination, marked “eadem”’ by Smith, not marked 
by Linnzus, | : 
There are also two sheets not marked by Linnzus. One of 
them has a Specimen of a very young plant of a specimen marked 
“racemulosa Michx :’ by Smith; the other carries specimens of 
What I here take as the true Z. minor, and evidently the type of — c 
the second Synonym given by Linnzus in the “Species Plan- _ 
” ‘noes oe es. : a 
‘arum, as it 1s labeled “Capraria fol. integerrimis, fl. virg. 
___ It will thus be seen that not a bit of the plant which appears 
8S L. minor L. in current American text-books entered into the Cooe 
"ginal description of the species. 
