IG Steele — Addition.^ to the Flora of Washington. 



lony or less, often mere bracts; stems erect or ascendiny, more or less 

 braiichinji-, in exceptional cases '.) feet long, commonly from 1.5 inches to 

 2 feet, the inlernodes 1 to 2 inches long, dark green or partly purple, 

 sparingly or rather densely clothed with a short grayish upwardly a]> 

 pressed pubescence: leaves H to 3 inches long, the up])er portion ovate 

 or ovate-lanceolate, with an entire acuminate point i inch long or less, 

 rather coarsely dentate or serrate, below strongly incurved-cuneate and 

 entire, forming a margined petiole of varying length which tapers ([uite 

 down to the verticillasters: the leaves when young bright pvn-ple, becom- 

 ing dark green: verticillasters many-flowered, commonly very dense, 

 sometimes somewhat looser, small or (perhaps only abnormally) large; 

 flowers very small, the calyx 4-toothed or sometimes o-toothed, the teeth 

 ovate or narrower, acutish: the corolla long-exserted. distinctly shorter 

 than that of L. Virijinirux; one or two sterile hiaments occasionally, but 

 not always discernible. 



The description is based chiefly upon material from the vicinity of 

 Washington, 1). ('., where the plant is common in mucky soils and on 

 the wet river flats. The exceptionally roljust s])ecimens referred to grew 

 on the Potomac flats. The U. S. National Herbarium contains, besides 

 local material, specimens from Maine, Connecticut, West Virginia, 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina, showing a distribution over 

 the coastal plain and southwestward in the mountains, without indica- 

 tion of high altitude. 



Linnaeus founded his Lycopvs Virginic us on Gronovius. The latter in 

 his Flora Virginica, edition of 1702, quotes the Linnaean character and 

 that of his own first edition, adding; "Ab hac verticillis magis approxi- 

 matis, et f'oliis prcifundius serratis dift'ert Lycopus Canadensis glaber foliis 

 integris dentatis 1). Sherard. cpiae species nomine Ijycopi flore minimo 

 albo, foliis purpureis glabris acuminatis serratis, odore remisso n. 181 

 inscripta." As the plant above described is beyond reasonable doubt 

 the same as Sherai-d's, it seems fitting to noti^ this hi.storical connection 

 in its name. The verticillasters, indeed, are not always "more approxi- 

 mate", but they may very well have been so in the specimens observed 

 by (ironovius, as I hey are sometimes only an iiu-h apart. The leaf 

 margin is moi'c deeply toothed than in ]'ii'(/i/)iri/x, ihe Hower is smaller 

 than in any other of our si)ecies, and the leaves are the onl\ decidedly 

 purple ones I have seen and are smooth and acuminate. The stem is 

 indeed not glabrous, bid the pube,scence is not very obtrusive, and would 

 not make a strong point against a description in most respects so good. 

 1 have made no note regarding the odor. 



707. Lycopus Virginicus !>. 



I ha\'e made a ])artial study of the remaining I'iri/i/iirii.s material in 

 my possession and in the National Herbarium, and the judgments formed 

 may perhaps be of interest. Excluding for the present fy. macrop]iyUu>< 

 Benth., and variety quercifolius Pursh, the remaining material includes 

 some forms which considered by themselves might seem worthy of spe- 

 cific distinction. Thd these distinctions are not borne out, and some of 

 our local material can scarcely be placed on one side of the line rather 



