322 GLEASON: STUDIES ON WEsT INDIAN VERNONIEAE 
based ona single sheet of Wright, Parry, & Brummel 273. An 
excellent collection of this rare species, Fuertes 1388, has been 
recently distributed and agrees perfectly with the original descrip-. 
tion and with that of Gleason (Revision, 184). 
Vernonia purpurata sp. nov. 
Shrubby, 2-2.5 m. tall; stem stout, coarsely striate, thinly 
tomentose below, becoming densely so in the inflorescence; leaves 
crowded, heavy, rigid, coriaceous, divaricate, elliptic-oblong, ob- 
tuse or subacute, entire or irregularly repand, obtuse or rounded 
at base, strongly rugose above, but glabrous and shining except 
for some thin pubescence along the midvein, minutely puberulent 
along the veins beneath; veins elevated on the lower surface, 
the lateral veins prominent, ascending, the veinlets small and 
closely reticulated; petiole 2-4 mm. long, tomentose; inflorescence 
small, irregular, composed of several short (2-6 cm.) leafy cymes, 
bearing each 4-10 heads; rameal leaves resembling the cauline, 
but two thirds as long; bracteal leaves narrowly oblong or oblong- 
linear, 10-15 mm. long, not present below many of the heads; 
heads sessile, secund along the cymes or aggregated at their tips, 
8-flowered; corollas white; involucre narrowly cylindric, 6 mm. 
high; scales closely imbricated, appressed, sharply acute, the 
lower ovate-triangular, pubescent, the middle ones with a 
ovate-triangular exposed portion, ciliate, glabrous on the back, 
the inner entire, puberulent on the back, purple-brown at their 
exposed tips; achenes glabrous, immature in the type specimen; 
pappus pale yellow-brown, the outer series 1.3 mm., the inner 7 
mm. long. 
Type, Taylor 544, from Jiquarito Mountain, Sierra Maestro, 
eastern Cuba, altitude 1,020 m., September 18, 1906, deposited 
in the Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. 
The lower leaves are lacking from the type plant. The crowded 
upper leaves are remarkably uniform in size, 4-5 cm. long by 
I.5-I.9 mm. wide. On another branch is the base of a leaf 
which measures 3 cm. wide, indicating that the lower leaves are 
considerably larger than the upper. While the species certainly 
belongs to this group, it is distinguished ae all the others known 
by its few-flowered heads. 
Vernonia Valenzuelana Rich. A shrub 1.2 m. high, on dry 
ferruginous soil, southeast of Paso Estancia, Oriente, Cuba, 
Shafer 1705. 
