BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 2go 



arises whether they have not been preserved in fossil leaves. From 

 their occurrence on so small a percentage of the leaves, this is less prob- 

 able than in many other plants where glands are produced the season 

 through ; and an examination of such specimens and figures as I had 

 access to failed to show me a single instance of their preservation. 

 Prof. Lesquereux, howe\er, writes me that they are of regular occur- 

 rence in varying numbers and position, on the tertiary P. glaudulifcra 

 Heer; m which they have been figured by Heer." Whether this is an 

 autonomous species, or merely based on the early, glanduliferous 

 leaves of some other species, I am unable lo say, but one might almost 

 expect the latter to be the case. 



A Larg'e PlliF-liall. — On the morning of October i8 some un- 

 known friend placed in my yard a specimen of the Giant Puff-ball 

 {Lycoperdon giganteiim), which had attained unusual proportions during 

 the long continued rains. It was depressed-globular, its circumfer- 

 ence in a horizontal plane being fifty-eight inches, and the line reach- 

 ing from the ground on one side over the top and down to the ground 

 again was thirty-two inches. In Mr. Peck's "U. S. Species of Lyco- 

 perdon," I find but one larger specimen noted, and that was over eight 

 feet in circumference, unless those mentioned by Schweinitz may have 

 been larger — J. M. C. 



AlopeeiirnS SaceatnS, n. sp.— Culms 5 to 10 inches high, 

 erector slightly geniculate below, simple; the radical leaves short, 

 cauline about 3, the lower sometimes extended into a long filiform 

 point, upper ones short, the sheath inflated and generally enclosing 

 the base of the panicle; upper ligules deltoid, acute, about 2 lines 

 long; panicle spike-like, oblong, i to i^ inches long, comparatively 

 looselj flowered; spikelets 2 lines long, the outer glumes narrowly ob- 

 long, obtuse, scarious at the apex, slightly united at the base, lateral 

 nerves obscure, the keel and margins fringed with silky hairs, other- 

 wise nearly smooth ; flowering glume (lower palet) oblong, obtuse, 

 smooth, equaling the outer glumes, the margins united more than half 

 the length, forming a sack and enclosing the oblong seed which is one 

 tenth of an inch long ; awn stout twice or thrice as long as the glume, 

 inserted near the base; spikelets about 60 on an inch of the panicle. 



This species is remarkable forthe large size of the spikelets, and 

 for the saccate flowering glume. Found in Eastern Oregon by T. J. 

 Howell. —Geo. Vasev. 



Pot.amOii:eton Hillii, n. sp.— This plant, a fragment of which 

 I noticed in the collections of the Phila. Acad., without n.tme or lo- 

 cality given, and a few specimens of which are among the miscella- 

 neous sheets of Dr. Robbins, and named by him provisionally, V.paii- 

 ciflorus, larger form," now proves to be a distinct species. 



Imperfect specimens, sent by Rev. E. J. Hill, were noticed in 

 this Journal for May, 1880, as a possible var. of P. zosterifoUus, and 



1' Flor. foss. Helvct. II, PI. LVIII, f. 5-10. 



