330 Gleason: Studies on West Indian Vernonieae 



found. The first group includes the type collection for Wright's 

 species. Both series have been collected, so far as data are 

 given, in the province of Pinar del Rio. 



Vernonia Ottonis Sch.-Bip. Linnaea 20: 508. 1847. 



Vernonia hieracioides Griseb. Mem. Am. Acad. 8: 511. i860. 

 Vernonia cubensis Griseb. Cat. PI. Cuba 144. 1866. 



Except one collection from Santa Clara {Leon 13 15) and one 

 from the Isle of Pines (Curtiss), all the sheets examined are from 

 Pinar del Rio. They show considerable variation in the pubes- 

 cence, serration, and texture of the leaves, but can not be further 

 separated. The specimens include cotypes of both Grisebach's 

 species, and agree perfectly with Schultz' description. 



Vernonia orientis sp. nov. 



Shrubby, as much as 6 m. in height, apparently not extensively 

 branched ; stem coarsely striate, glabrate below, becoming cinere- 

 ous-puberulent in the inflorescence; leaves rigid, dark green, 

 spreading, oblanceolate, the principal ones 9-1 1 cm. long by 2.5-3.5 

 cm. wide, abruptly short-acuminate or sharply acute, remotely 

 dentate with sharp salient teeth, chiefly above the middle, attenuate 

 from below the middle to a cuneate base, very scabrous above, 

 minutely puberulent and scabrellate beneath; veins elevated 

 below, only the midvein and its lateral branches prominent; 

 petioles 5-10 mm. long; inflorescence terminal, broadly pyramidal 

 or subhemispheric; cymes freely branching, ultimately bearing 

 2-6 heads aggregated or subcapitate near the tips; bracts subulate, 

 3-5 mm. long; heads 5-flowered; involucre 3-4 mm. high, cam- 

 panulate; scales ovate to ovate-oblong, sharply acute or sub- 

 acuminate, essentially glabrous but glandular on the back; achenes 

 sparingly pubescent; outer pappus minute, the inner pale yellow- 

 ish brown, 4 mm. long. 



Type, Shafer 350Q, from Sierra Nipe, near Woodfred, Oriente, 

 Cuba, altitude 450-550 m., January 10, 1910, deposited in the 

 Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. 



The two collections, both from Oriente, are the only examples 

 of the group from this part of the island. It is distinguished from 

 the other members of the group at a glance by its inflorescence, 

 and also by the involucral scales and the number of flowers. 



