404 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. VI, No. 2, 



Under the present policy of the Department of Botany at 

 Ohio State University only those species are included in the 

 flora of the state which are actually represented by specimens in 

 the State Herbarium. The necessity of such a regulation is 

 obvious and requires no comment here. Five other species of 

 the Fourth Catalogue are accordingly to be dropped, H. ellipti- 

 cum Hook., H. adpressuni Bart., H. majus (Gray) Britton, H. 

 canadense L., and Triadenum petiolatum (Walt.) Britton. There 

 is no apparent reason why the first four of these should not 

 occur in Ohio. Their geographical distribution, as given in the 

 standard manuals, includes this State, they have been reported 

 from adjoining States, and it is quite probable that future col- 

 lecting, especially in the northern and northwestern parts of the 

 State, will eventually result in their re-addition to the Ohio flora. 

 Triadenum petiolatum, on the other hand, is not to be expected 

 within the State. It is essentially a plant of the coastal plain 

 swamps, extending from New Jersey to Louisiana and along the 

 inland extension of the coastal plain to southern Illinois, where 

 it grows in deep cypress swamps. 



Three additional species, however, are to be added to the list, 

 H. horeale (Britton) Bickn., reported in 1904,*//. virgatwn Lam. 

 and H. suh petiolatum Bickn., here reported for the first time from 

 Ohio. Fifteen species of Hypericaceae are therefore actually 

 represented in the State Herbarium, and this number will 

 probably be raised in the future to nineteen. On this account 

 the four species in question are included in the key. 



Both the flowers and fruit are necessary for the identification 

 of most of the species, and in collecting care should be taken that 

 the specimens show both. Except at the beginning and close 

 of the blooming period a single plant will generally show both. 

 Ripe capsules may easily be sectioned to show the number of 

 cavities and the character of the partitions either dry or after 

 soaking in hot water. 



Key to the Ohio Genera. 



1. Sepals 4, in two very dissimilar pairs. Ascyrum. 



1. Sepals 5, equal or nearly so. 2. 



2. Receptacular glands none; flowers yellow. 3. 



2. Three receptacular glands alternating with the stamen-clusters; 



flowers not yellow. Triadenum. 



3. Leaves normal. Hypericum. 



3. Leaves scale-like, appressed, flowers sessile. Sarothra. 



Ascyrum L. 



One species in the State. 



1. Ascyrum multicaule Michx. Not Ascyrum hypericoides 

 L. or Ascyrum crux-andreae L. as given in the standard manuals. 

 These two names, which are synonyms, belong to a plant of the 



*Ohio Naturalist, 5:249, 1904. 



