25 



ously long-acuminate at both ends, often an inch wide in the mid- 

 dle but at other times are 3-4 mm. wide and only a trifle wider in 

 the middle but as long as the others. The plant is high alpine, 

 growing just on the edge of stunted tree belts along gulches tilled 

 till late with snow. » 



Verathum. An examination of all the species of Veratrum 

 after many years field study and note taking on the ground leads 

 one to reject the work of Heller and Kydberg as untenable be- 

 cause it is founded on trivial and evanescent characters of no worth. 

 Heller bases V. Esehscholtzianum on the drooping panicle bran- 

 ches, when eastern forms (V. viride) are often drooping and wes- 

 tern forms often erect. Western forms are described bv him as 

 having bracts as long as or longer than the flowers, when in fact 

 they are more often shorter, some of my material have bracts 

 hardly longer than the pedicels. V. Californicum Heller tries to , 



disintegrate, he separates V. speciosum A giving it acute petals and U b 

 a V-shaped mark at base, when in fact every gradation can be 

 found on the same plant. He separates out V. Jonesii on my ma- 

 terial gathered for the fruit (from Idaho) on the basis of a single 

 specimen (seen by him) collected after the petals had shrunk by 

 maturing and partly drying before I gathered them and so had 

 become half their normal length. The r«'st of this material got 

 at the same time and place has petals from wholly dried to fresh 

 on the same plant (before gathering) varying from 5-<S mm. long 

 and from oval to almost linear and the V-shaped mark from very 

 evident to nothing at all. Naturally one would expect a botanist 

 to know by the maturity of a specimen why it was collected but if 

 we are to the thinking for the closet botanist to prevent fake spe- 

 cies he will have to go out of bu-dness or we shall have to label our 

 material "gathered for the fruit, petals shrunk to half by partly 



drying in the air, closet botanist nota bene, see this Jt©^", and 

 then if they do not pay any more attention than they usually do 

 to collectors notes will we be guiltv under the law of contributory 

 negligence? V. tenuipetalum Heller founds on linear petals and 

 lax and open inflorescence more like that of V. vindr, I have simi- 

 lar material from its range, the south, Mew Mexico, Ar zona ami 

 the Sierra Mad res with the same lax habit and elongated petals of- 

 ten 4 mm. wide and not linear. V caulatum Heller founds on 

 I common form with elongated panicle axis and narrow petals. 

 This is frequent from Salt Lake City northward and as often has 

 oval as linear ones and varying greatly in length. The tail of the 

 panicle varies from 1-2 ft. long to nothing at all. One would hard- 

 ly expect a botanist to be ignorant of the fact that plants in rich 

 soil or with an excess of water will run to leaves and bracts a^d and 



