322 Gleason: Studies on West Indian Vernonieae 



based on a single sheet of Wright, Parry, & Brummel 273. An 

 excellent collection of this rare species, Fuertes 1388, has been 

 recently distributed and agrees perfectly with the original descrip- 

 tion and with that of Gleason (Revision, 184). 



Vernonia purpurata sp. nov. 



Shrubby, 2-2.5 m - tall; stem stout, coarsely striate, thinly 

 tomentose below, becoming densely so in the inflorescence; leaves 

 crowded, heavy, rigid, coriaceous, divaricate, elliptic-oblong, ob- 

 tuse or subacute, entire or irregularly repand, obtuse or rounded 

 at base, strongly rugose above, but glabrous and shining except 

 for some thin pubescence along the midvein, minutely puberulent 

 along the veins beneath; veins elevated on the lower surface, 

 the lateral veins prominent, ascending, the veinlets small and 

 closely reticulated ; petiole 2-4 mm. long, tomentose; inflorescence 

 small, irregular, composed of several short (2-6 cm.) leafy cymes, 

 bearing each 4-10 heads; rameal leaves resembling the cauline, 

 but two thirds as long; bracteal leaves narrowly oblong or oblong- 

 linear, 10-15 mm - long. not present below many of the heads; 

 heads sessile, secund along the cymes or aggregated at their tips, 

 8-flowered; corollas white; involucre narrowly cylindric, 6 mm. 

 high; scales closely imbricated, appressed, sharply acute, the 

 lower ovate-triangular, pubescent, the middle ones with an 

 ovate-triangular exposed portion, ciliate, glabrous on the back, 

 the inner entire, puberulent on the back, purple-brown at their 

 exposed tips; achenes glabrous, immature in the type specimen; 

 pappus pale yellow-brown, the outer series 1.3 mm., the inner 7 

 mm. long. 



Type, Taylor 544, from Jiquarito Mountain, Sierra Maestro, 

 eastern Cuba, altitude 1,020 m., September 18, 1906, deposited 

 in the Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. 



The lower leaves are lacking from the type plant. The crowded 

 upper leaves are remarkably uniform in size, 4-5 cm. long by 

 1. 5-1. 9 mm. wide. On another branch is the base of a leaf 

 which measures 3 cm. wide, indicating that the lower leaves are 

 considerably larger than the upper. While the species certainly 

 belongs to this group, it is distinguished from all the others known 

 by its few-flowered heads. 



Vernonia Valenzuelana Rich. A shrub 1.2 m. high, on dry 

 ferruginous soil, southeast of Paso Estancia, Oriente, Cuba, 

 Shafer 1705. 



