Rydberg : Studies ox Rocky Mountain Flora 532 



dm. wide, obtuse or acute, glabrous above, finely soft-pubescent 

 beneath, sessile and sheathing : panicle many-flowered with ascend- 

 ing branches : bracts lanceolate, foliaceous : bractlets membranous, 

 yellowish, ovate, acuminate, shorter than the flowers and pedi- 

 cels : petals and sepals yellowish white, oval or broadly oblanceo- 

 late, mostly obtuse, 5— /-nerved, 8—10 mm. long, 4—5 mm. wide : 

 capsule oblong, about 3 cm. long and 12 mm. in diameter: seeds 

 oblong, 7—8 mm. long with a wide white wing-margin. 



In looking over the .specimens of V. Califoruiciun in the Co- 

 lumbia Herbarium I found one specimen collected in Oregon on 

 the Wilkes' Expedition, which looked very unlike the rest, having 

 a narrower and denser panicle and narrower and more acutish 

 petals and sepals. I took it out and placed it in the cover used 

 for the specimens not named. I found in that cover a similar 

 specimen. On the label was giv^en neither locality nor the col- 

 lector's name ; but on the sheet was pasted a paper with a tracing 

 of the basal leaves, the description of ["^ Califoriiicnin E. Durand 

 and some remarks, among others the words " petiole 3—4 inches 

 long." The specimens are presumably a part of the type of V. 

 Californicuin or at least have been compared with Durand's speci- 

 mens and the notes made by Durand himself Durand in his de- 

 scription expressively states that the lower stem-leaves are petioled. 

 As this is never the case in the plant of the northern Rockies and 

 the Columbia Valley, I am certain that the plant generally re- 

 garded as V. CalifoDiicimi and from which Dr. Watson's descrip- 

 tion in his revision was mainly drawn is perfectly distinct from 

 Durand's plant. The latter is a rare plant judging from the fact 

 that I have not seen more than the two specimens mentioned above. 



V . spcciosiiin ranges from Montana to Washington, California 

 and Colorado, reaching a maximum altitude of 2,500 m. 



MoNTAX.Y : Bridger Mountains, 1896, Flodinan, j^/ (type); 

 Little Belt Mountains, J^^Vz : Bozeman, P. Koch ; Deer Lodge 

 Co., Eniinx Ware ; Belt Park, 1886, R. S. WiJliauis, 47 j ; Belt 

 Creek, 1883, Scribner, 28 j ; Lo-Lo Creek, 1880, Watson. 



Idaho: Lake Pend d'Oreille, 1892, Sandberg, MacDougal &■ 

 Heller, 74.1 ; Kootenay Co., 1886, /. H. Sandberg ; Lake Waha, 

 1896, A. A. & E. Gertrnde Heller, jjSo; 1892, Isabel Mulford. 



Utah : Heber Valley, 1869, -S". Watson, 116 j ; American Fork 

 Canon, 1880, M. E. Jo)ies. 



