Plate 2552. 



LOESELIA INVOLUCRATA, 0. Don. 



POLEMONIACEJE. 



7 L. involucrata, 6. Dou, Gen. SyjtL iv. p. 448 ; ramulis lateralibus 



/ floriferis elongatis gracillimis fere nudis, bractearum setis brevibus. 



Ilerba eito glabrescens, erecta, 1-2 ped. alta, ramosa, ramis 

 gracillimis virgatis lignescentibus. Folia caulina opposita, vel superiora 

 multo minora bracteiformia alterna, breviter petiolata, tenuia, 

 rigidiuscula, ovata, maxima circiter sesquipollicaria, apiculato-crenulata 

 vel setoso-crenulata, asperula. Flores pauci ad apices ramorum 

 lateralium fere capillarium congesti, bracteis foliaceis rigid is in 

 inargine setaceis arete suffulti. Calyx setulosus, dentibus acuminatis- 

 simis. Corolla tabus brevis, lobis spathulatis. Capsula glabra, lsevis ; 

 semina oblonga, compressa, brevissime alata. 



Mexico : Tequila, Jalisco, Palmer, 370 ; Colima, Palmer, 117"). 



Loeselia involucrata, (I. Don, and L. ciliata, Linn., were confused 

 by Bentham (DC. Prodr. ix. p. 319, 1845), and the confusion has 

 been continued by most, if not all, botanists ever since. Indeed, it 

 has been supposed that they were one and the same species, but Mr. 

 J. N. Rose, Assistant Curator of the United States National 

 Herbarium at Washington, having specimens of several species 

 (including the new one represented on Plate 2551) under observation, 

 suspected the truth, and arrived at a correct conclusion. The writer 

 has since compared Mr. Rose's specimens with the types of the two 

 species in the British Museum and with the type of Hoitzia lupulina, 

 Hook, et Arn , in the Kew Herbarium, and verified Mr. Rose's view 

 that the following synonymy, a part of which has been ascribed to 

 L. involucrata, all belongs to L. ciliata, Linn. Cilia ciliata, Benth. 

 PL Hartw, p. 325 ; Hoitzia lupulina, Hook, et Arn. Bot. Beech. Vow 

 p. 441 ; Loe lia aristata, G. Don, Gen. Syst. iv. p. 248 ; Hoitzia 

 aristata, H.B.K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. iii. p. 107 ; and nearly all the 

 specimens that have been referred to involucrata belong to ciliata. 

 The former is apparently comparatively rare, whereas the latter 

 ranges from North Mexico to Panama, and includes the specimens 

 under the following numbers in the Kew Herbarium : — Cerro de Pinal 



RERTKS TV. VOL. VI. PART TTT. 



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