BRIEFER ARTICLES 



HYBRID PERENNIAL SUNFLOWERS 



From time to time references have been made to supposed hybrids 

 between the perennial sunflowers, but there has been no systematic 

 investigation of the subject. Such hybrids, if formed, might in many 

 cases reproduce vegetatively, and so give rise to an essentially uniform 

 group of plants of considerable extent, having the aspect of a true 

 species. 



At Boulder, Colorado, Helianthiis orgyalis and H. Maximiliani have 

 been growing in close proximity for a number of years. There has 

 appeared close to these plants a distinct form which can hardly be any- 

 thing but a hybrid between the two. Possibly such hybrids will be 

 found growing wild in Nebraska, Missouri, or Texas, if anywhere the 

 ranges of the parent species overlap. In order to bring out the characters 

 of the new plant it is necessary partly to redescribe the supposed parents, 

 especially since the descriptions in the manuals omit several significant 

 characters. The 3 plants involved will be distinguished by the following 

 numbers: (i) H. orgyalis DC; (2) H. orgyaloides, nov. (the presumed 

 hybrid) ; (s) H. Maximiliani Schrad. 



Stems: (i) very smooth and glaucous to top, much branched, the 

 branches slender; (2) essentially smooth, but roughish to the touch 

 above, nearly as stout as in Maximiliani, and with few branches or short 

 peduncles as in Maximiliani; (3) stout, Httle branched, scurfy, with 

 matted white hairs, thinly hairy at top. 



Leaves: (i) linear, crowded on stem, i-nerved, but with a strong 

 marginal nervure; surface glabrous; margins slightly undulate, with 

 mere traces of obsolete teeth; width of stem leaf 6 mm.; (2) linear, 

 appearing as in orgyalis, but up to 12 mm. broad, rough to the touch, 

 remotely and indistinctly subdentate; a continuous but looped sub- 

 marginal nervure; (3) broadened, narrow lanceolate, grayish, more or 

 less scabrous on both sides, margins remotely and feebly dentate; no 

 continuous marginal nervure; width of stem leaf 26 mm. 



Peduncles: (i) slender; (2) stoutish; (3) stout. 



Disk: (i) dark; (2) yellow, pale green in bud; (3) yellow. 



Botanical Gazette, vol. 67] [264 



