140 PITTONIA. 
amendment, more accurately defines the leaf-outline as ob- 
long-ovate ; though in the enlarged summer foliage there is 
a strong suggestion of the deltoid or triangular-ovoid. The 
plant is several times larger than V. sagittata, has a more 
fleshy texture and a marked pubescence. The petioles are 
short in proportion to the lamina, and this is never in the 
least sagittate or incised toward the base. No field botanist 
will ever be persuaded that it is a mere variety of V. sagittata. 
Mr. Pollard cites V. ciliata, Muhl., as a synonym of V. 
ovata ; but he does not state upon what authority he thus 
identifies the Muhlenbergian plant, the mere name of which 
is all that is printed by that author. I suppose the author- 
ity for the identification is Le Conte, who as a contempo- 
rary of Muhlenberg and perhaps acquainted with him and 
his plants, may be relied upon in such a case. But as far 
as the name ciliata goes, it would better befit the following. 
V. DENTATA, Pursh, fide Le Conte. V. emarginata, Le : 
Conte. Pursh's character of an oblong leaf-outline has no — | 
application except in the case of young plants beginning to 
flower. Before the flowering is past, the larger leaves are 
deltoid-subcordate, and nearly as broad at base as long. 
Still later the large early summer foliage is quite as broad 
as long, at least in the plant of the vicinity of Washington. 
The absence of pubescence from the surfaces of the leaves 
brings out with distinctness the ciliate character of the mar- 
gin. There isin this region not a hint of intergradation 
between this and V. sagittata, while in foliage and general 
appearance there is, as Le Conte remarked, no likeness 
between them. I should have thought that the herbarium 
students in reducing this species must have placed it under 
the cucullata aggregate rather than with the sagittata. 
In our district both these species occur only on elevated 
gravelly or sandy wooded or bushy hills, though not in the 
same localities, V. ovata choosing hard gravelly soils and 
slopes looking northward, while V. dentata confines itself to 
