Vol. XXV, pp. 119-120 June 29, 1912 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



WOOTONELLA, A NEW GENUS OF CARDUACEAE. 



BY PAUL C. STANDLEY. 



[Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.] 



In 1853 Doctor Gray described, in the second part of Plantae 

 Wrightianae, * a plant which lie called Ximenesia encelioides 

 var. nana. The brief description reads: 



Caulibus depressis vel assurgcntibus vix spithameis; ramis 

 monocepbalis ; lignlis parvis discum vix superantibus; acheniis 

 dense pubescentibns pachypteris. 



The type locality is stated as "Around the dwellings of 

 Prairie-dogs, between the Limpio and the Rio Grande," Texas. 

 It is added that " Here this dwarf variety abundantly occurs, 

 unmixed with the ordinary state of the species." 



Even this brief diagnosis shows that the plant is very unlike 

 Ximenesia encelioides. Doctor Gray makes no mention of his 

 var. nana in the Synoptical Flora; but Dr. B. L. Robinson, in 

 his revision of the genus Verbesina,t recognizes it as a species, 

 under the name Verbesina nana. The description given by the 

 second author is incomplete in one or two particulars. 



The writer was puzzled for some time by an anomalous 

 composite received from the Pecos Valley of eastern New 

 Mexico, which, while manifestly related to the genera Ver- 

 besina and Ximenesia, agreed with nothing in the Synoptical 

 Flora. It was so unlike the common weed, Ximenesia exauricu- 

 lata, that it was not once associated generically with that 

 species, until a description of the plant was found in Doctor 

 Robinson's monograph of the genus, and correlated with frag- 

 mentary herbarium material of some of the collections cited. 



This comparatively rare plant differs in so many respects 



•PI. Wright. 2: 92. 



■rProc. Amer. Acad. 34:513. 1899. 



23— Pkoc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXV, 1912. (119) 



