564 
the pod ; and partially two-ranked seeds. From both of our well- 
known eastern species C. rudzfolia differs in its biternate leaves 
with commonly unifoliolate terminal division, in the cut of the 
large, very broad, deeply cordate leaflets and in the characteristic 
appressed pubescence along the veins on the under leaf-surface. 
Cimicifuga cordifolia Pursh is almost certainly a form of C. 
Americana Michx. Pursh’s description is clearly meant for that. 
species and he cites Michaux’s name as a synonym. It is not 
probable that Pursh would have omitted from his Flora a plant 
that must have been so familiar to him as this common species of 
the Southern Mountains. The plant figured in Curtis’ Botanical 
Magazine,* has much the leaf of C. rudifolia, but is described as 
having “the nauseous smell of its relatives” and “ flowers in June 
and July.” C. rudifolia is like C. Americana in its total lack of 
odor and its autumnal flowering. It is more likely that Curtis had 
a form of C. racemosa with broad, cordate leaflets, such as is repre- 
sented in the National Herbarium by a specimen from East Ten- 
nessee, of C. C. Parry’s collecting. It was doubtless some such 
form that Dr. Gray had in mind when he reduced C. cordifolia to 
C. racemosa as avariety. The description of C. cordifolia in Torr. 
and Gray may possibly include C. rudifolia, although this is not 
probable. Indeed, it is not easy to imagine upon what that descrip- 
tion was based. Pursh’s characters certainly give no warrant for 
the assumption that his — had sessile ovaries. 
HeEpatica acuta (Pursh) Britton, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 6: - 
18901. 
A specimen collected near Wolf Creek bears one normal leaf 
and another with rounded lobes, exactly as in our second Ameri-. 
can species. Dr. Gattinger collected a similar plant on the Big 
Frog Mountain, in Polk County. Dr. Charles Mohr informs me 
that he finds such plants occasionally in the mountains of Alabama, 
and that they are referrable to H. acuta. In East Tennessee the © 
color of the sepals affords a good character, those of HY. acuta — 
being pale rose-purple or lavender, while in the other species they a 
are always some shade of blue. 2 
icctiansiacncanely 
* 46: p1. 2069. 1819, 
