Jennings: Contribution to Botany of Isle of Pines. 89 



189. Paepalanthus alsinoides var. minimus var. nov. (Plate XVII, 



figures E-II.) 



Plant perennial (?), stem caespitose-branched up to 3 cm. high, 

 leaves densely tufted towards the top of the stems and branches, 

 linear from a dilated, subamplexicaul, ciliate base, rather thick, rigid, 

 finally somewhat obtuse, 6-8 mm. long, peduncles solitary in the axils 

 of upper leaves, rigid, 3-costate, soon glabrate, 1.5-2 cm. long, sheaths 

 about 3 mm. long, the lamina about 4 mm. long, linear-acuminate, 

 the heads broadly obconic, about 2-4 mm. in diameter, hairs of the 

 flowers acute, nearly hyaline, outwardly smooth, nodose at the septa, 

 the interior surface of the wall scarcely at all granulose. 



Planta perennis (?), caule caespitoso-ramoso usque ad 3 cm. alti- 

 tudine, foliis prsesertim in apice dense confertis, e basi dilatata sub- 

 amplexicauli ciliata linearibus, crassiusculo-rigidis, demum obtusius- 

 culis, 6-8 mm. longis, medio vix i mm. latis; pedunculis in axillis 

 foliorum superiorum solitariis, rigidulis, 3-costatis, mox glaberrimis, 

 1.5-2 cm. longis; vaginis circiter 3 mm. longis, laminis circiter 4 mm. 

 longis, lineari-acuminatis; capitulis lato-obconicis, circiter 2-4 mm. 

 diametro, pilis florum acutis, paene hyaline, extus laevibus, ad septa 

 nodulosis, intus vix granulosis. 



Type: On gravelly soil in the pine-barrens one mile north of Los 

 Indios, May 19, 1910, 0. E. Jennings, No. j8/. 



This plant is evidently to be regarded as a derivative of the Cuban 

 PcEpalanthus alsinoides. It was found growing on the coarse, glisten- 

 ing, white quartzose gravel in the pine-barrens north of Los Indios, 

 and it was associated with a number of plants with decided inclina- 

 tions towards a habitat of acid soil: Pinguicula filijolia, Kalmia sp., 

 Xyris ambigua. 



The variety differs from the typical species in that it has leaves only 

 half as long as the latter, the peduncles only about one-third as long, and 

 the hairs of the flowers scarcely or not at all granulose on the inside 

 surface of the cell-wall. In most of the other characters the variety 

 agrees well with the species. The flowers were too far past maturity 

 to be studied satisfactorily, but were seen to be about 1.8 mm. long, 

 the three outer segments i mm. long, obcuneate, the truncate apex 

 piliferous and erose, the inner segments as long, united into a slender 

 tube with the small lobes and, after maturity, strongly infolded. 



