159 



NEW AND NOTEWORTHY NORTHWESTERN 

 PLANTS.— II. 



By C. V. Piper. 



Mitella trifida Graham and its allies. 



In endeavoring to identify two very different northwestern Mit- 

 ellas, both of which had been referred to M. trifida Graham, a 

 rather curious confusion was brought to light. Excepting M. 

 pentandra Hooker, M. caulescens Nutt., M. Breweri Gray, and the 

 recently described M. violacea Rydberg, all of our western species 

 have at one time or another been referred to M. trifida. One 

 reason for this seems to have been the fact that no authentic speci- 

 mens of M. trifida existed in American herbaria, and only recently 

 has the plant again been collected. At any rate, M. trifida has 

 been made to include all the species except those mentioned above, 

 and as thus constituted was an aggregate of no less than seven 

 species. 



Of these seven, M. ovalis Greene, Pitt. I, 32 (1887) (M, Hallii 

 Howell, Erythea, III 33, 1895) is closely related to M. Breweri 

 Gray, and it will form the second species of the § Brewerimitella 

 Engler. 



The other six seem truly allied to M. trifida, which is the type of 

 the § Mitellina Meisn. The new species here described, however, 

 require some changes in the generic description as well as in the 

 § Mitellina, which may be thus characterized : Calyx-lobes erect or 

 little spreading, thin and petaloid, about equaling the campanulate 

 or funnel-form tube ; petals entire or wanting or more or less 3- 

 cleft or parted ; stigma 2-lobed. 



The following key will serve to separate the species. The types 

 of the new ones here described are in the Gray Herbarium. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 

 * Flowers with petals. 

 +- Calyx-lobes 3-nerved, the mid-nerve branched, the lateral ones simple; 

 plants rather small, the inflorescence less than 6-cm. long. 



Erythea, Vol. VII, No. 12 [31 December, 1899]. 



