4 Coville — Rihes Coloradeiise., an ZTndescrihed Currant. 



commonly 4 to 7 mm. in width, cordate-reniform in general outline, 

 5-lobed, smooth on both surfaces, except sometimes for a very sparse 

 pubescence on the veins beneath and on the margins, and with scattered 

 minute sessile glands, the lobes ovate-triangular, bluntly acute or obtuse, 

 doubly crenate-dentate; flowers from buds situated below those produc- 

 ing the leaves, but occasionally developing a single rudimentary leaf; race- 

 mes loosely 6 to 12-fiowered, the pedicels commonly 4 to 8 mm. long and 

 like the main axis glandular-hairy and minutely pubescent; bracts nar- 

 rowly linear to lanceolate-subulate, thick and herbaceous, not exceeding- 

 half the length of the pedicel, the lowermost one occasionally develop- 

 ing into a miniature leaf -blade; ovary glandular-hairy; calyx lobes widely 

 spreading, slightly united at the base, ovate-rotund, slightly narrowed 

 below to a very broad base, sparingly hairy on the outside with both gland- 

 bearing and glandless hairs, greenish or somewhat purplish, the diameter 

 of the open flower about 6 to 8 mm.; petals smooth, purplish, about 1 

 mm. long by 1.5 to 2 mm. broad, slenderly fan-shaped with much in- 

 curved sides; filaments smooth, of nearly uniform width throughout, 

 about 1.2 mm. long, the anthers orbicular, a little less than 1 mm. in 

 diameter; styles smooth, separate to the base, about 1.2 mm. long: fruit 

 spherical, black without bloom, sparingly glandular-hairy, in our dried 

 and flattened but not crushed specimens to 10 mm. in diameter. 



Type specimen in the United States National Herbarium, collected 

 July 27, 1896, in a moist shady place in Marshall Pass, Colorado, at an 

 altitude of about 10,500 feet, by C. L. Shear (No. 11.56). 



With Ribes vH>lfi the present species has no immediate rela- 

 tionship. Its racemes are developed from usually leafless later- 

 al buds on one-year-old wood and its calyx has widely s])reading 

 lobes and no evident tube. It has several other distinguishing 

 characters, perhaps the most conspicuous of which are the sub- 

 tilate-lanceolate thick green bracts of the inflorescence, and the 

 sparsity of the ovary liairs tipped with purple glands. Wolfi 

 has its racemes borne on short leafy branches, the calyx tube well 

 defined though short, and the lobes only moderately spreading, 

 the ovate or obovate-lanceolate, obtuse or broadly acute bracts 

 with thin semi-transparent margins, and the ovary densely covered 

 with yellowish-green stalked glands. To Rihes prostratimiy 

 however, and to Ribea Iff.riflorum Pursli our new species is 

 closely related. From the former it may be distinguished by 

 the rarity of leaves from the flower buds, the blunter character 

 of its leaf lobes, a difference difticult to describe but better un- 

 derstood by a comparison of figures or s])ecimens; its larger 

 flowers, with calyx lobes sparingly hairy and about 3 mm. long; 

 petals slenderly fan-shaj)ed and much broader than long; and 



