( V>/v7/V' Ribes C/oloTdid&fisc, an T^n<l< j xci'i!>< j <J ('urrant. 5 



black instead of red fruit. Prostration has leaf-bearing flower 

 buds, leaves with sharply acute to acuminate, serrate-dentate 

 lobes, flowers with calyx lobes smooth, about 2 mm. in length, 

 and obovate-oblong in outline, petals with rhombic blade on a 

 rather broad stalk, the whole much longer than broad, and fruit 

 red. From luviflorum our new species may be distinguished by 

 the lack'of bloom on the fruit, by its usually blunter leaf -lobes 

 and teeth, the scattered glanduliferous hairs on the calyx lobes, 

 and the petals nearly twice as broad as high. Laxiflorum has 

 its fruit black with a bloom, leaf lobes usually acute, no gland 

 ular hairs on the calyx lobes, and petals commonly a little 

 longer and a little narrower than those of coloradense, therefore 

 only slightly broader than long. 



The specimens of colorddense consulted are as follows: 



Colorado: 



"Rocky Mountains," Geort/e l r asey, 1868. 



Mosquito pass, near Leadville, alt. 10,000 to 11,000 feet, 

 John Wolf, 1873. 



Marshall Pass, alt. about 10,000 feet, C. L. Shear, 1896 

 (No. 1156). 



"Southwestern Colorado," [La Plata Mountains ?] Slide 

 Rock Canyon, alt. 10,500 feet, Baker, Earle, and 

 Tra<-y, 1898 (No. 289). 



San Miguel County, near Telluride, on the headwaters of 

 San Miguel River, alt. 10,000 feet, Frank Tweedy, 



1894 (No. 190). 



These three species, jtroxt'ratmn, laxiflorum, and coloradense, 

 are very closely related and form a group which might be called, 

 after the practice of the zoologists, a superspecies, or after the 

 practice of some European botanists, a species collectiva. They 

 differ in minor but well-defined characters, apparently do not 

 intergrade, and each has a characteristic range distinct from 

 that of the other two. Prostratum centers in eastern Canada, 

 extending across the Great Lake and St. Lawrence region into 

 the United States, continuing southward in the Appalachian 

 district to North Carolina and westward in British America to 

 Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Athabasca, and Mackenzie, and speci- 



