﻿38 Vail: Studies in the Asclepiadaceae. 



The specimens here quoted, are, with one or two exceptions, 

 preserved in the Herbarium of Columbia University. I am in- 

 debted to Prof. Underwood and to Dr. Small for much help and 

 many valuable suggestions ; to Mr. P. A. Rydberg for copious 

 notes on A. auriculata and A. stenophylla, and to Dr. B. L. Robin- 

 son for the loan of type specimens for examination. 



II —THE SYNONYMY OF A8CLEPIA3 CURTISSI1 AND OTHER NOTES. 



Asclepias Curtissii A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 19:85. 1883. 



Asclepias aceratoides Nash, Bull. Torr. Club, 22:154. 1895* 

 Not M. A. Curtis. 184Q. 



Asclep 



896 



In a recent number of Pittonia (3 : 224. 1897), Prof. Greene 

 proposes a new genus based on Asclepias arenicola Nash, which is 

 only a synonym of a species long previously described by Dr, 

 Gray and but little known. The section in which this species is 



mi 



and the heading, 2. " Leaves alternate/' has apparently been under- 

 stood as including also A. Curtissii, which it should not on care- 

 ful study of the key in the main work. 



Prof. Greene claims that the plant in question out of flower 

 could be taken for nothing but an Acerates. That is undoubtedly 



Asclep 



«y 



most, if not all, the species of Acerates could readily be put in 

 Asclepias. The bi-auriculate, hastate, clawed base of the hood, 

 which Prof. Greene notes as one of the characters of his new genus 

 Oxypteryx, occurs also in our two common and well-known field 

 species, Asclepias tuberosa and A. decumbens, species which also 

 have entire anther-wings. Asclepias Hallii Gray, another little 

 known plant, also has hoods with hastate clawed bases and en- 

 tire or obscurely notched anther-wings. The triangular, almost 

 sagittate anther-wings of Asclepias Curtissii, are undoubtedly an 

 interesting variation from the usual types ; but it scarcely seems to 

 me that they are sufficiently strong characters on which to estab- 

 lish a genus. 



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