Henderson : New Plants from the Northwest 357 



only in slightly longer style. As you go south these forms gradu- 

 ally disappear and give place to the typical California plant about 

 Ashland, Southern Oregon. Even with these marked intergrades, 

 we might take still the California plant as a good species at one end 

 of the string and S. racemosa of Portland as the other, were it not 

 that in moving eastward, other perplexing forms arise. In the 

 mountains about Moscow, Idaho, forms can be found on the south 

 and exposed sides of the mountain with more or less of the am- 

 plcxicaulis type, save the leaves are shortly petioled, and the style 

 not so long as in the type. On the north and heavily wooded sides 

 can be found plants of the racemosa type, but leaves not so long 

 petioled, and style longer. (In the Gray Herbarium are many 

 eastern forms of 6*. racemosa y that differ quite considerably in the 

 length of petioles.) To make matters worse, in the Yakima country 

 and in eastern Oregon are found types much like the Californian, 

 but with styles as short or even shorter than the eastern S. race- 

 1 viosa. I therefore propose the following revision of this group : 



i. Smilacina racemosa Desf, the eastern United States rep- 

 resentative, extending west to the Pacific Ocean. 



2. Smilacina racemosa amplexicaulis Watson, the common 

 plant of California and southern Oregon with crowded ovate am- 

 plexicaul leaves and very long styles. 



/ 3. Smilacina racemosa brachystyla. Differing from the 

 Californian plant only in the remarkably short style. The type 

 of this variety I have transferred from my own herbarium to that 

 of Harvard, where it will be more accessible. No. 4843. 



After much study in the field and the examination of the im- 

 mense number of specimens in the Gray Herbarium, I see no way 

 to separate ^. sessilifolia from 5. stellata save in the length of the 

 pedicels, a very trifling distinction. Forms can be found in the 

 West that match the eastern forms in rootstock, size of fruit, more 

 or less folded leaves which vary from acute to acuminate, and size 

 of flowers. What therefore is left of specific value ? I have even 

 found some forms along the Snake River in Idaho that have ped- 

 icels no longer than in some extreme eastern forms, and would be 

 considered typical S. stellata were the leaves not flat — a character 

 I find by no means uniform in the eastern plants. The western 

 plant is certainly not deserving of more than varietal rank, if even 



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