The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY 



Official Organ of 

 The Wild Flower Preservation Society 



OF America 



Vol. VII MAY, 1904 No. 5 



The Bush Morning-Glory. 



By E. L. Morris. 



The history of our knowledge of the bush morning-glory, which is a 

 commonly known plant to those familiar with the plains east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, is interesting, and may be outlined as follows : This species, 

 then without a name known to white men, was first collected in July, 

 1820, along the sources of the Canadian River, which region is now com- 

 prised in northern Colorado, adjacent southeastern Wyoming, and south- 

 western Nebraska. The fortunate finder was Dr. E. James, on the sur- 

 veying expedition under the command of lyieut. Col. Stephen H. Long of 

 the United States Corps of Engineers. The plants with many others were 

 sent to Dr. John Torrey for identification. But these morning-glory 

 specimens were in poor condition or incomplete, and Dr. Torrey did not 

 describe them in his list of Dr. James's plants. 



In 1842 Lieut. John C. Fremont collected like plants from the forks 

 of the Platte River (in Nebraska) to the Laramie River (in Wyoming). 

 Dr. Torrey, in 1843, listed Lieutenant Fremont's plants in his " Cata- 

 logue of Plants collected by Lieutenant Fremont, in his Expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains." The specimens of the bush morning-glory he de- 

 scribed as — 



'' Ipomcea leptophylla, new species. Stems branching from the base, 

 prostrate, glabrous, angular ; leaves lanceolate-linear, very acute, entire, 

 attenuate at the base into a petiole ; peduncles 1 to 3-flowered ; sepals 

 roundish-ovate, obtuse with a minute mucro. Forks of the Platte to 

 Larimie River. July 4-September 3. Imperfect specimens of this plant 



