Further Notes on the Agrimonies 



By B. L. Robinson 



In the December issue of Rhodora I discussed the identity of 

 our New England agrimonies. The chief points of the argument 

 were : (i) That Agrimonia Brittoniana must be reduced to A. striata 

 Michx.; (2) That the plant which has been passing as A. striata 

 must receive another name ; (3) That the one -word descriptions of 

 Muhlenberg's Catalogue are insufficient for definite interpretation 

 and therefore furnish no proper basis for nomenclature in this 

 group. As all the conclusions of my brief article have since been 

 called in question I see that I was at fault in not stating more fully 

 the substantial data upon which they were founded, as my reasons 

 will, I think, carry conviction to most persons who examine them 

 carefully. 



The correct names for the two species passing in the Illustrated 

 Flora as A. Brittoniana and A. striata depend* of course, upon an 

 accurate determination of A. striata Michx. The exact identity of 

 this species is, fortunately and notwithstanding a recent statement 

 to the contrary, quite evident from the original description, for the 

 characters mentioned therein apply to but one' of our species. 

 Happily, the agrimonies, while possessing considerable habital 

 similarity, exhibit some good characters in the fruit. This in 

 A. Brittoniana is turbinate, conspicuously sulcate-striate, crowned 

 at the summit by connivent hooked bristles, and in maturity 

 strongly reflexed against the rachis. In the small-fruited species, 

 however, which has been passing as A. striata, the fruit is hemi- 

 spherical, suberect, spreading, as moderately deflexed and marked 

 by such shallow broad furrows as to appear ribbed by the narrow 

 intervening elevations rather than sulcate-striate by the depressions. 

 In the plant which I have called A. gryposcpala Wallr. (the A. 

 hirsuta of the Illustrated Flora) as well as in the tomentose species 

 of more southern range, the bristles even at an early stage spread 

 widely, concealing to some extent the middle portion of the fruit 

 and preventing it from lying close back against the rachis in a 

 manner to suggest the term reflexed. Let us now turn to the 



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