^76 Steele Additions to the Flora of Washington* 



long 1 or less, often mere bracts; stems erect or ascending', more or less 

 branching, in exceptional cases 3 feet long, commonly from 15 inches to 

 2 feet, the internodes 1 to 2 inches long, dark green or partly purple, 

 sparingly or rather densely clothed with a short grayish upwardly ap- 

 pressed pubescence; leaves 1-J- to 3 inches long, the upper portion ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, with an entire acuminate point | inch long or less, 

 rather coarsely dentate or serrate, below strongly incurved-cuneate and 

 entire, forming a margined petiole of varying length which tapers quite 

 down to the verticillasters; the leaves when young bright purple, becom 

 ing dark green; verticillasters many-flowered, commonly very dense, 

 sometimes somewhat looser, small or (perhaps only abnormally) large; 

 flowers very small, the calyx 4-toothed or sometimes 5-toothed, the teeth 

 ovate or narrower, acutish: the corolla long-exserted, distinctly shorter 

 than that of L. Viryinicux; one or two sterile filaments occasionally, but 

 not always discernible. 



The description is based chiefly upon material from the vicinity of 

 Washington, I). ('., where the plant is common in mucky soils and on 

 the wet river flats. The exceptionally robust specimens referred to grew 

 on the Potomac flats. The U. S. National Herbarium contains, besides 

 local material, specimens from Maine, Connecticut, West Virginia, 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina, showing a distribution over 

 the coastal plain and southwestward in the mountains, without indica 

 tion of high altitude. 



Linnaeus founded his Lycopus Virginirm on (Jronovius. The latter in 

 his Flora Virginica, edition of 1762, quotes the Linnaean character and 

 that of his own first edition, adding: "Ab hac vert ici His magis approxi- 

 matis, et foliis pro fund i us serratis diff'ert Lycopus Canadensisglaber foliis 

 integris dentatis 1). Sherard, quae species nomine Lycopi fiore minimo 

 albo, foliis purpureis glabris acuminatis serratis, odore remisso n. 181 

 inscripta." As the plant above described is beyond reasonable doubt 

 the same as Sherard's, it seems fitting to note this historical connection 

 in its name. The verticillasters, indeed, are not always "more approxi 

 mate", but they may very well have been so in the specimens observed 

 by Gronovius, as they are sometimes only an inch apart. The leaf 

 margin is more deeply toothed than in Virginicus, the flower is smaller 

 than in any other of our species, and the leaves are the only decidedly 

 purple ones T have seen and are smooth and acuminate. The stem is 

 indeed not glabrous, but the pubescence is not very obtrusive, and would 

 not make a strong point against a description in most respects so good. 

 I have made no note regarding the odor. 

 707. Lycopus Virginicus L. 



I have made a partial study of the remaining Virginicus material in 

 my possession and in the National Herbarium, and the judgments formed 

 may perhaps be of interest. Excluding for the present L. macrophyllu* 

 Benth., and variety quercifoliiis Pursh, the remaining material includes 

 some forms which considered by themselves might seem worthy of spe 

 cific distinction. But these distinctions are not borne out, and some of 

 our local material can scarcely be placed on one side of the line rather 



