m the Bulletin of th b Forres Botanji \i Clvb, 31 ; 457-460,//. ir>-i<> September, 1904.] 



Studies in the Asclepiadaceae — VIII 



A NEW SPECIES OF ASCLEPIAS FROM KANSAS AND TWO POSSIBLE HYBRIDS FROM NEW YORK 



Anna Murray Vail 

 i With plates 16-19) 



Asclepias kansana sp. nov. 



Stems erect, very stout, canescently tomentose throughout, 2 

 dm. (or more ?) high : leaves approximately opposite, short- 

 petioled ; basal blades broadly oblong-ovate, truncate and rounded 

 at the base, obtuse and mucronulate or emarginate at the apex, the 

 upper ones elliptical-oblong, also mucronulate or more often 

 emarginate, the lower ones 13-16 cm. or more long, 9-1 1 cm. 

 wide, the upper ones 9-14 cm. long and 4.5-9 cm. wide, minutely 

 tomentose or becoming glabrate above, densely canescently 

 tomentose beneath, becoming less so with age, the midvein very 

 broad and conspicuous, the primary veins wide-spreading ; petioles 

 stout, I— 1.5 cm. long: umbels several, axillary on the upper part 

 of the stem, peduncled, many-flowered ; peduncle 3-7 cm. long ; 

 pedicels 2—3 cm. long, tomentose : calyx-segments oblong-lanceo- 

 late : corolla-segments (pink-purple ?), oblong, 7-8 mm. long, 

 tomentose on the outside ; hoods oblong, about 4 mm. long, erect 

 but diverging at the obtuse apex (pinkish ?), the lateral margins 

 infolded with a broad obtuse tooth on each side at about the 

 middle, the tips of which meet under the exserted incurving horn ; 

 horn falcate, affixed near the base of the hood, and incurving over 

 the edge of the anthers : follicles erect, on recurved pedicles, 

 8—10 cm. long, 3—3.5 cm. wide, obtuse at the curved apex, 

 densely white-tomentose, echinate with numerous soft spinose 

 processes that vary in length from 3-10 mm.; seeds 8 mm. long. 

 (Plate 16, figure 4 ; Plate 18.) 



457 



