248 



spatulate, dark violet, about equalling the sepals; stamens lO ; 

 styles free. (Plate 305, fig. 3-) 



This has generally been confused with l.Jamesn, which it much 

 resembles in habit. The main characters that distinguish the two 

 are: in 7. lieucheraeforme the petals are dark bluish violet, scarcely 

 exceeding the .sepals and comparatively narrow, and the styles 

 free (see plate 305, fig. 3); in T. Jamesii the petals are reddish 

 purple, orbicular on a long claw, and often twice as long as the 

 sepals, and the styles are united to near the top (see fig. 4). Both 

 have 10 stamens, and differ in that respect as well as in habit 

 from the other species of Therofon. In habit they much more re- 

 semble Heuchera. They may constitute a fairly good genus ; but 

 the arctic T. RicJiardsonii seems to connect them with the other 

 species with 5 stamens, small white flowers and diffuse panicles. 



T. heiicheraefonne extends from the Black Hills of South Da- 

 kota to the Teton range of Wyoming and northward. The follow- 

 ing specimens from Montana have been seen: Flodman, no. 514, 

 July 28, 1896, from Bridger Mountains ; P. A. Rydberg, no. 2677, 

 July 23, 1895, from Bozeman Caiion ; Frank Tweedy, no. 255, 

 1887, from East Boulder. 1. Jamesii (Torn) Wheelock, is as far 

 as I know, confined to the alpine peaks of Colorado. 



MiTELLA VIOLACE.\ n. sp. 



Stem from a perennial rootstock, slender, about 3 dm. high, 

 leafless, finely puberulent and with a few long silky hairs. Basal 

 leaves on petioles 5-10 cm. long, the blade and petiole sparingly 

 hispid, broadly cordate in outline, slightly 5-7-lobed with rounded 

 finely crenate lobes; raceme very short with small nearly sessile 

 flowers ; flowers about 2 mm. in diameter ; sepals ovate, rather ob- 

 tuse, very thin and petal-like, veined and tinged with violet; petals 

 oblanceolate, entire or slightly 3-cleft, a little exceeding the sepals 

 (Plate 305, figs. 1-2). 



In the form of the flower this stands nearest to M. diversifolia 

 Greene. The sepals and petals are of the same size and form, 

 but the former are generally tinged with violet and the latter less 

 deeply 3-toothed, or entire. The leaves are broader and rounder 

 in outline, the lobes shallower and rounder and evidently crenate. 

 In other words the leaves are almost identical with those of M. 

 pentandra Hook., from which the plant is easily distinguished by 

 the small, nearly sessile flowers and the form of the petals. With 



