Studies in the Asclepiadaceae — VII. A new Species of Vincetoxicum 



from Alabama* 



By Anna Murray Vam. 

 (With Plates 9 and 10) 



Vincetoxicum Alabamense 



High climbing, sparingly hirsute with long rather weak hairs 

 and a minute glandular pubescence : petioles 3-8 cm. long, chan- 

 nelled ; leaf-blades 6-15 cm. long, 5-10 cm. broad, rather thin, 

 ovate or oblong-cordate, acuminate at the apex, the basal auricles 

 rounded and never Ov'erlapping, the sinus narrow at the base, 

 sparingly puberulent and dark green above, lighter and more 

 closely puberulent beneath : peduncles shorter than the petioles, 

 3-6-flowered : calyx bi-glandulose, the lobes lanceolate, acute : 

 corolla dull greenish -yellow, 2 cm. in diameter, 5 -parted to near 

 the base ; segments oval, obtuse, puberulent and minutel)' papillose 

 on the outer surface, conspicuously reticulated within ; gynostegium 

 raised on a low broad column ; crown orange-yellow, consisting of 

 a low saucer-shaped ring attached to the base of the corolla, 5- 

 parted, each division minutely and irregularly toothed or entire, 

 appendaged within by 5 tooth-like erect crests attached to the ba.se 

 of the column ; stigma white, flat, obtusely 5 -angled : anther-tips 

 white, scarious ; pollinia obovate : ovaries minutely puberulent : 

 folHcles 8-9 cm. long, glandular-puberulent, closely and strongly 

 muricate : seeds 8-9 mm. long, obovate, granuiose, tipped by a 

 tuft of long silky coma. 



" Sandy hillsides on edge of woods," Dale County, Ala- 

 bama, collected by T. G. Harbison. June 3 and September 5, 

 1902. 



Differing from Vincetoxicum reticulatimi (Engelm.) Heller in 

 the greater size of its leaves and flowers, the more strongly muri- 

 cate follicles and the horn-like appendages to the crown. 



In Vincetoxicum reticulatum the leaf-blades are 3-6 cm. long, 

 the basal sinus broad with often overlapping auricles ; the racemes 

 are mostly the length of the petioles ; the flowers are scarcely 

 more than 1.4 cm. in diameter jA^hen expanded ; the crown is very 



* Presented by invitation before the Botanical Society of .\merica, Washington. 

 D. C, January i, 1903. 



178 



