338 The Botanical Gazette. [August, 
sepals of the fruiting calyx, designated by Holzinger as the 
gracilis group (Contr. Nat. Herb. 1: 213), and, on the other, 
a coalescence of the teeth in such a way as to form a broad 
wing, leaving only a serrate or crenulate margin to mark their . 
origin. On this basis, then, we venture to act upon Holz- 
inger’s suggestion and reduce our five native forms of the sec- 
tion HOPLOTHECA to two species. 
The section DILOPHA as we have seen it, though consid- 
erably divergent in its stigma character, is in most respects 
so intimately related to the HOPLOTHECA species as to pre- 
serve its specific relation to them. Since its habitat is re- 
stricted to tropical South America, we may limit its discus- 
sion in this paper to the suggestion that here, as in HOPLO- 
THECA, further study may likewise result ultimately in reduc- 
tion of the number of species. 
1. F. FLORIDANA (Nutt.) Moq. DC. Prodr. 18%: 420. 1849- 
Oplotheca Floridana Nutt. Gen. Am. 2: 79. 1818. 
. gracilis Hook. Ic. Pl. sub p/. 256. 1837-1854. 
F.. gracilis Moq. 1. c. 
O. Texana A. Br. Ann. Sci. Nat. III. 13: —. 1849. 
Stem slender, leafless above, varying in height from a few 
centimeters to 9: leaves very variable in size, linear-lanceo- 
late to ovate acute, mostly attenuate at base: bracts often be- 
coming black in age: fruiting calyx ovate; dorsal crests dis- 
sected into distinct rigid irregular teeth.—From Georgia, 
Florida and the Gulf states throughout Texas, where it 1S 
most abundant, westward to Chihuahua, reaching its northern 
limits in Colorado, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Illinois. It does 
not appear to be found east of Illinois in the northern states. 
While there is one unbroken transition series from certain 
minute specimens from southwestern Texas of Bigelow’s col-. 
lection, some of which are less than 3™ high, to the leafier 
taller forms of the original F. Floridana, making it impossi- 
ble to draw definite boundary lines at any point in this as~ 
cending scale, it yet appears that the proportion of interme- 
diate forms is small, so that two groups, based almost solely 
on the size of the plant would seem to present themselves; 
though in our opinion this is not sufficiently justifiable ground 
for permitting them to remain separate. Mr. Holzinger 4t- 
rives at a similar conclusion, but in preserving the name £74" 
cilis he has overlooked the priority of Floridana. See also 
Torrey in Pac. R. R. Rep. 4: 131, where the same conclu- 
