BICENTENARY OF LINN.EUS 39 



Linnseus died Jan. 10, 1778, honored and esteemed by all. Some of 

 his work will doubtless live as long as botany is studied by man. 



We see from the preceding account that we may consider Linnseus one 

 of our American botanists. Even the little plant which Gronovius dedicated 

 to the Father of Botany, the twin-flower of our woods, with its exquisite 

 perfume and its dainty pink flowers, belongs to a genus essentially North 

 American. The genus Linnoea contains four forms, all closely related. One 

 of these, the original Linnoea borealis, is confined to the mountain regions 

 of northern and central Europe. Linnseus discovered it on his Lapland 

 journey, and it was then considered a very rare plant. Now it seems to be 

 more widely distributed than it was at the time of Linnseus. Perhaps it is 

 of American origin, and has become modified since it transplanted itself on 

 the other side of the ocean. The other three forms are North American. 

 Linnooa americana Forbes, which has usually been confounded with its 

 European cousin, is common in the woods from Labrador to Alaska, and 

 extends in the Rocky Mountains as far south as New Mexico. L. longiflora 

 (Torr.) Howell, is found in the mountains from northern California to 

 Alaska. The fourth form is, as far as I know, undescribed and unnamed. 

 It is with great pleasure that I here propose the following name and descrip- 

 tion for this species. 



Linnsa serpyUifolia sp. nov. 



A delicate plant with long creeping stems, 1-4 dm. long, sparingly hirsute; 

 petioles 2-3 mm. long, ciliate; blades broadly oval or round-ovate, 5-8 mm. 

 long, minutely crenulate, obtuse, sparingly hirsute, more or less coriaceous 

 and shining, slightly paler beneath; peduncles 3-5 cm. long, sparingly 

 pubescent and more or less glandular above, 2-flowered; bracts 2-3 mm. 

 long, linear or lance-linear, obtuse; pedicels 5-8 mm. long, glandular- 

 pubescent; hypanthium subglobose, in flower slightly over 1 mm. long, 

 glandular-puberulent, purplish; calyx-lobes 2-2.5 mm. long, linear-subulate; 

 corolla pink, open-funnelform with a very short tube, decidedly oblique, 

 about 6 mm. long and 5 mm. wide. 



This species differs from L. borealis and L. americana in the very narrow 

 and almost glabrous calyx-lobes. In this respect, it agrees with L. longi- 

 flora; but it is distinguished from that species by the differently shaped 

 corolla and by the leaves, which are broadest at or below the middle, instead 

 of above it. It differs from all three in the smaller size of the flower and of 

 the leaves, and in the indistinct toothing of the latter. 



Alaska: Cape Nome, 1900, F. E. Blaisdell (Type in herb. N.Y. Bot. 

 Gard,); Kotzebue Sound, .4nioif, 



