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BOTANICA 



Vol. IV. 



MAY, 1879. 



No. 5. 



Gerardia tenuifolia, Valil, var. asperula. — Leaves all nearly fili- 

 form, the upper side hispidulo scabrous or asperulous (in tlie manner 

 of G. aspera): inflorescence more paniculate and with the pedicels all 

 ascending: corolla small, the expanded limb only half an inch in 

 diameter. 



Dry and bare hills and bluff's, Missouri to Minnesota, Wisconsin, 

 and Michigan. This well marked variety I received many years ago 

 from tlie late T. J. Hale, who collected it at St. Croix, Wisconsin, and 

 in Fillmore Co., Minnesota; and I have also a fragment from Michi- 

 gan. Mr. H. Eggert of St. Louis — a good collector and keen observ- 

 er — now sends it from Eastern Missouri, and notes how diff"erent it is 

 from the G. tenuifolia of the neighborhood (but which grows in open 

 woods), the latter being my var. macrophylla or approaching it. The 

 present plant diverges quite as much from the typical G. tenuifolia in 

 another direction, and should certainly have a distinctive name, — 



Asa Gray. 



Some Rare Plants. — In Mr. Curtiss' last article on the Flora of the 

 Shell Islands of Northern Florida, he mentions the fact of his finding 

 a species of Peperoviia. Judging from the meagre description given 

 it is probably the same plant as one found by Miss Reynolds in the 

 Indian river region of that State, and which can be confidently stated 

 to be identical wuth specimens in the Herbarium of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, collected by NuttalPs correspon- 

 dent Mr. Ware, and described by that author, as I am informed by 

 Dr. Gray, in an early number of Silliman's Journal. Nuttall's ticket 

 reads thus: "■* Piper leptostacliyon^ East Florida, Mr. Ware." The as- 

 terisk, as given above, is his well known indication of a new species. 

 The plant is evidently a Peperomia, a genus separated from Piper 

 (as I suppose) since the date of the above mentioned publication. It 

 is singular that this plant, so long ago discovered, should not have 

 been again detected until during the past year, and that the publica- 

 tion of the name, with well preserved specimens to back it, should 

 have been neglected by subsequent authors. At least one other 

 species, P. magnolifefolia^ has been found within a year or two by Dr. 

 Garber in South Florida. 



