Notes on Viburnum and the assemblage Caprifoliaceae 
W. L. McATEE 
(WITH ONE TEXT FIGURE) 
For some years the writer collected and studied the plants 
known as Caprifoliaceae, especially those of the genus Viburnum, 
with a view of revising at least the American forms of the latter. 
As realization of this project does not seem likely, a few matters of 
general interest arising during the investigation are here set forth.* 
Stellate pubescence in Viburnum.—Although used in American 
botanical manuals the term stellate is not properly applied to the 
pubescence in our species of the genus Viburnum. True stellate 
pubescence, present in some exotic species, consists of trichomes 
having single points of attachment but which higher up are 
expanded or branched in a radiate manner. The pubescence of 
the United States species of Viburnum consists of simple hairs or 
of groups of such hairs, in the latter case each with its own attach- 
ment to the epidermis. The proper adjective to apply to these 
grouped hairs is fasciculate, a term which fits them exactly and 
which, if not employed in such instances, falls into unfortunate 
disuse. Since the fasciculation may involve any number from 
two to some twenty hairs, it is not a very good character to use in 
keys to the species. Still more unsatisfactory are descriptions 
of the vestiture in which the misleading modifier ‘‘stellate’’ is 
used for the denser tufts, as it implies a more fundamental differ- 
ence than really exists between species which intergrade through 
every degree of fasciculation of the pubescence. 
Relationship of Viburnum nudum and Viburnum cassinoides.— 
The characters of these forms intergrade extensively; the length of 
peduncle relative to that of cyme and the crenulations of the leaf 
margin, characters usually cited in keys, are fully connected by 
individual variations. The following with reference to the leaf 
* The writer is obliged to Messrs. S. F. Blake and P. C. Standley for reading this 
paper and for making beneficial suggestions. 
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