APRIL, 1918. XANTHIUM AND SOLIDAGO MILLSPAUGH & SHERFF. 7 



purpose of collecting once more, if possible, this interesting Solidago. An 

 aggregate distance of nearly twenty-five miles was traveled on foot 

 in that vicinity, special attention being given to the flora along the now 

 abandoned canal and the railroad rights-of-way. Elsewhere the land 

 either was under intensive cultivation (or pasturage), or was swampy 

 and unsuited to a species presumably of the prairie. Even the roadsides 

 were found in most cases to have had their native flora more or less 

 entirely exterminated in the past by mowing. 1 A careful search failed 

 to reveal the plant. We fear that the rapid commercial and agricultural 

 development of the land about Morris, during the few years subsequent 

 to the opening of the Illinois-Michigan Canal in 1848,2 may have ren- 

 dered this species extinct. 



That a permanent record of the plant may be left, we present a 

 rather full taxonomic description: 



Solidago emarginata Millspaugh & Sherff sp. nov. PI. VI. 



Herba, perennis (?), =*= 5 dm. alta, simplex (forsan ad basim ramosa). 

 Caulis infra subglaber, superne pubescens. Folia alterna, non petiolata, 

 glabra sed margine ciliata, non perspicue reticulata; inferiora cuneato- 

 oblanceolata, ad basim angustata sensim, ad apicem valde et perspicue 

 emarginata sinu 1-4 mm. alto, 2-7 cm. longa et 6-9 mm. lata; superiora 

 linearia aut lineari-lanceolata, utrimque acuminata, 3-7 cm. longa et 

 4-8 mm. lata, summa cum fasciculis axillaribus foliolorum. Inflores- 

 centia thyrsiforma, =*= 2 dm. longa; racemis multis, gracilibus, suberectis, 

 2-7 cm. longis; ramulis tenuibus et pubescentibus. Capitula (immatura) 

 oblonga, 2-3.5 mm - alta; bracteis 3-4-seriatis, lineari-oblongis, non nisi 

 ad apicem pubescentibus, obtusis, ad tergum subcarinatis, exterioribus 

 sensim brevioribus; radiis non observatis; disci flosculis circum 10; 

 pappi setis in ovario scabridis. 



/. F. Holton, near Morris, Illinois, September 13, 1850 (type Herb. 

 University of Chicago, in Herb. Field Museum cat. no. 368080). 



1 Concerning the peculiar conditions that have been tending toward the exter- 

 mination of our native prairie species in Illinois, see E. S. Steele, Contrib. U. S. Nat. 

 Herb. 13: 360. 1911. 



* For various data connected with Morris and vicinity, consult C. O. Sauer, 111. 

 State Geol. Surv. Bull. 27, 1916. 



