352 Henderson : New Plants from the Northwest 



/ Chionophila Tweedyi 



This plant was published in the Botanical Gazette, 15 : 66 as 



Pentstcmon Tiveedyi by Canby & Rose. This the writer thinks an 



error, which is probably due to the lack of mature fruit when the 



species was named. The serious question is, not whether it is not 



a Pcntstemon, but whether it should not be raised to generic rank. 



For some time the writer was impressed with the necessity of 



making a new genus to fit this plant, but the more carefully he 

 weighed each point the more convinced he was that the plant could 



more naturally be placed in CJiionopJiila. The reasons will now 

 be given, while at the same time the really generic characters will 

 not be overlooked. 



The genus Cliionophila was based by Bentham on specimens 

 collected by Dr. James on Pike's Peak in Colorado, and the mono- 

 typic species was named for the discoverer. Many specimens of 

 this plant are found in the Gray Herbarium, and they all show the 

 characters as described by Bentham. The most important are a 

 close spicate inflorescence which is noticeably secund ; a small 

 glabrous plant, rising from a thick rhizoma ; radical leaves with 

 very scarious bases ; very large and long calyx ; corolla with 4 

 perfect stamens and one sterile one of much less length, and a 

 many-ovuled ovary. Mr. Bentham had not seen the capsule, 

 but Dr. Gray in the Synoptical Flora describes the seeds as 

 " rather large, oblong, with a very loose and arilliform cellular- 

 reticulated outer coat/' I have also noted in some of the corollas 

 I have examined in the Gray Herbarium that they are not perfectly 

 straight at base, but a little larger on one side than the other. 

 The proposed Chionopliila Tweedyi agrees with this plant generic- 

 ally in the following points. It is about the same height, has just 

 such leaves, the radical with wide scarious bases, and I note in both 

 the same scarious bracts surrounding the leaves besides the leaf- 

 bases of former years ; similar opposite and sheathing cauline 

 leaves ; very similar fertile and sterile stamens, the former with, 

 equally confluent cells ; very similar seeds, the description given 

 by Dr. Gray for C. Jamesii fitting C. Tiveedyi exactly ; furthermore 

 the two plants both blacken readily in drying. On the other hand 

 the points of dissimilarity are more apparent than real. The 

 flowers of C. Jamesii are arranged in a one-sided spike, those of the 





