14 University of California Publications in Botany [Vol.5 



Nicotiana rustica var. jamaicensis 



15 



U. C. B. G. 07. — Nicotiana rustica var. jamaicensis Comes 

 (1899, p. 21, pi. II, X) is a plant not always to be readily 

 distinguished from N. rustica var. asiatica, on the one hand, and 

 N. rustica var. humilis on the other. It has a less spreading 

 habit than the former, but more than the latter. Its leaves are 

 not so cordate as those of the former, but at the same time 

 they are more rounded than those of the latter. It holds its 

 characters when bred in the pure line as it has been in the 

 U. C. B. G. since 1907. The seed was received from Professor 

 Comes himself. It is shown in plate 12. 



Nicotiana rustica var. scabra 



V. C. B. G. 07. — Nicotiana rustica var. scahra (Cav.) Comes 



as interpreted by Comes (1899, p. 23, pi. II, XIV) is a most 



characteristic plant and seems worthy of independent specific 



rank, so much does it differ from the other varieties of N. 



rustica. It is a tall plant and decidedly pruinose. While the 



plate of Comes {loc. cit.) represents a plant of rather spreading 



habit, the plants of the U. C. B. G., grown from seed sent from 



Portici by Professor Comes himself, are more strict; some of 



them are in fact of very narrow habit. Unfortunately I have 



no photograph to represent this number as vet, but a fairlv 



26 

 typical specimen of this variety is represented by U. C. B. G. 06 



and is reproduced in plate 13. The var. scahra is not only dis- 

 tinct in its general habit, size, and pruinose appearance, but 

 it has a bluish purple color to the buds and young twigs and 

 smaller and more crowded flowers, which are greenish yellow. 

 It lacks glands except on the flowering axes, being clothed else- 

 where by a thick and compact covering of white, slender hairs 

 abruptly bent at the middle. Above, among the flowers, these 

 are mixed with the ordinary stalked, multicellular glands com- 

 monly found in the species of Nicotiana. 



