4 Coville Ribes Coloradense, an- Undescribed Currant. 



commonly 4 to 7 mm. in width, cordate-reniform in general outline, 

 5-lobed, smooth on both surfaces, except sometimes for a very sparse 

 pubescence on the veins beneath and on the margins, and with scattered 

 minute sessile glands, the lobes ovate-triangular, bluntly acute or obtuse, 

 doubly crenate-dentate; flowers from buds situated below those produc 

 ing the leaves, but occasionally developing a single rudimentary leaf; race 

 mes loosely 6 to 12-flowered, the pedicels commonly 4 to 8 mm. long and 

 like the main axis glandular-hairy and minutely pubescent; bracts nar 

 rowly linear to lanceolate-subulate, thick and herbaceous, not exceeding 

 half the length of the pedicel, the lowermost one occasionally develop 

 ing into a miniature leaf -blade; ovary glandular-hairy; calyx lobes widely 

 spreading, slightly united at the base, ovate-rotund, slightly narrowed 

 below to a very broad base, sparingly hairy on the outside with both gland- 

 bearing and glandless hairs, greenish or somewhat purplish, the diameter 

 of the open flower about 6 to 8 mm.; petals smooth, purplish, about 1 

 mm. long by 1.5 to 2 mm. broad, slenderly fan-shaped with much in 

 curved sides; filaments smooth, of nearly uniform width throughout, 

 about 1.2 mm. long, the anthers orbicular, a little less than 1 mm. in 

 diameter; styles smopth, separate to the base, about 1.2 mm. long; fruit 

 spherical, black without bloom, sparingly glandular-hairy, in our dried 

 and flattened but not crushed specimens 6 to 10 mm. in diameter. 



Type specimen in the United States National Herbarium, collected 

 July 27, 1896, in a moist shady place in Marshall Pass, Colorado, at an 

 altitude of about 10,500 feet, by C. L. Shear (No. 1156). 



With Ribes wolfti the present species has no immediate rela 

 tionship. Its racemes are developed from usually leafless later 

 al buds on one-year-old wood and its calyx has widely spreading 

 lobes and no evident tube. It has several other distinguishing 

 characters, perhaps the most conspicuous of which are the sub 

 ulate-lanceolate thick green bracts of the inflorescence, and the 

 sparsity of the ovary hairs tipped with purple glands. Wolfti 

 has its racemes borne on short leafy branches, the calyx tube well 

 defined though short, and the lobes only moderately spreading^ 

 the ovate or obovate-lanceolate, obtuse or broadly acute bracts 

 with thin semi-transparent margins, and the ovary densely covered 

 with yellowish-green stalked glands. To Ribes prostration^ 

 however, and to Ribes laxiftorum Pursh our new species is 

 closely related. From the former it may be distinguished by 

 the rarity of leaves from the flower buds, the blunter character 

 of its leaf lobes, a difference difficult to describe but better un 

 derstood by a comparison of figures or specimens; its larger 

 flowers, with calyx lobes sparingly hairy and about 3 mm. long; 

 petals slenderly fan-shaped and much broader than long; and 



