89 



Lechea juniperina n. sp. 



Tufted from a descending and branched woody root, 2-5 dm. 

 high. Stems erect, often from an outcurved or ascending base, 

 mostly purplish and naked below the middle at flowering-time, 

 branched above the middle to form a dense narrow panicle ; 

 branches short, numerous, closely ascending, mostly 2-5 cm. long 

 (1-9 cm.); pubescence consisting of fine white hairs, at first 

 densely appressed, becoming loosely substrigose-hoary or even 

 subtomentose-canescent; leaves numerous, crowded, ascending 

 or appressed, thickish, slightly revolute in drying, only the mid- 

 vein evident, glabrous above, below with the midrib finely strigose- 

 pubescent, and with some loose marginal hairs, the petioles 1-2.5 

 mm. long, appressed white-pubescent on the under side ; stem- 

 leaves linear to oblong-linear and oblanceolate, mostly tapering 

 towards the base and more abruptly narrowed at the apex, acute or 

 subacute, 1-2.2 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, those of the branches 

 much smaller, narrowly linear, acute; inflorescence forming a dense 

 and leafy narrow panicle, 10-20 cm. long (in reduced plants much 

 smaller and more or less terminal), the numerous short-pedicelled 

 flowers crowded in short axillary racemes and clustered at the 

 ends of the branches; fruiting calyx ovoid-ellipsoid, 1.5-2 mm. 

 long ; pedicels 1-3 mm. long, often very short in the clustered 

 terminal flowers ; inner sepals elliptic, subacute, nerveless or 

 faintly 3-nerved, reddish-purple, at least on the margins, the 

 shorter outer sepals usually bright green in marked contrast; 

 capsule ovoid-subglobose, 1.5-2 mm. long; petals reddish-purple, 

 oblong-linear, with only a mid-vein, about 2 mm. long by i mm. 

 wide; leaves of basal shoots narrowly elliptic, acute at each end, 

 somewhat pilose-hairy on the midrib and margins or nearly 

 glabrate. The plant blooms in August. The basal shoots do not 

 begin to develop until September. 



In reduced states the plant is only 1-3 dm. high and linear in 

 general outline, the more persistent leaves appressed, the shortened 

 panicle more or less terminal and sometimes only i cm. wide. 



A form which grows in the shade of copses or park-like woods 

 is more slender and less leafy than the typical plant of neighbor- 

 ing open ground, the leaves looser and often spreading, the more 

 open panicle much less floriferous and more racemose-paniculate. 



Specimens have been examined from various localities along 

 and near the Maine coast from York Harbor to Mt. Desert. 



Lechea intermedia Leggett differs from L. jiiniperina in less 

 tufted habit and often larger size, becoming 7 dm. tall. The pu- 

 bescence is somewhat coarser and more strigose, and composed of 



