STUDIES IN THE HERBARIUM. I. 



BY 



EDWIN B. ULINE, PH.D. 



In looking over the Amaranthacece and Dioscorcacece of Dr. C. F. 

 Millspaugh's recent Yucatan and West Indian collections with a 

 view to determining those families for publications now in prep- 

 aration, a number of new forms in the museum herbarium came under 

 my notice, some of which proved so interesting that it was thought fit 

 to prepare them separately for immediate publication. The results 

 further confirm the opinion of the writer, acquired during a consider- 

 able special study of both families, that we are yet a long way from a 

 final clear understanding of the real relationships existing in these two 

 difficult groups. 



I acknowledge with pleasure the many helpful suggestions for 

 which I am indebted to Dr. Millspaugh, and the kindness of Mr. Lans- 

 ing, of the Department of Botany, in the preparation of the drawings. 



DIOSCOREACE.E. 



A glance at the few representatives of Dioscoreacea in the Her- 

 barium at the Field Columbian Museum gives added confirmation to 

 the testimony of all who have made a special study of the group, /. e. , 

 that our knowledge not only still is, but must long remain very in- 

 complete unless collectors may be induced to interest themselves in 

 the group more than they have done in the past. In the Set before 

 me, as has nearly always been the case heretofore, one or the other 

 of the two sex-forms is too often missing. A long study of the family, 

 and especially of the genus Dioscorca, has convinced the writer that 

 the staminate flower characters alone, constant and pronounced as 

 they are for the determination of specific limits, can never be of much 

 generic value in rescuing the group from its present unsatisfactory 

 condition. The key to the problem will therefore only be found 



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