| 
1888. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 191 
BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
The subterranean shoots of Oxalis violacea (WITH PLATE XII).— 
Though one of the commonest plants in the prairie states the violet 
wood-sorrel is usually gathered so early in the season that several inter- 
esting features are not commonly represented in herbaria. While en- 
joying a few days in looking at the rich flora about Mount Carmel, IIl., 
in company with Dr. Schneck, a fortnight since, I succeeded for the first 
time in getting specimens of this species, with the subterranean bulbifer- 
ous shoots that are characteristic of the section to which it belongs; and 
the subsequent collection of a fine lot of plants in the same condition 
near St. Louis by Mr. Pammel enables me to figure the plant for the 
GAZETTE. 
In the specimens collected the watery tap-root, which is repre- 
sented in occasional herbarium specimens, but is not very often collected, 
although it isa normal part of the plant from this time on, was finely 
developed, in some instances reaching a length of two inches and a di- 
ameter of over half an inch. From the withered bulb just above this 
protruded three to nine fleshy white runners one or two millimeters In 
diameter, and in some cases considerably over two inches long, remotely 
scaly below, the rather acute apex somewhat enlarged, and with crowded 
scales, the inner very thick and yellow, forming the young bulb of next 
season. The runners appear to curve downward at first, afterward bend- 
ing upward at the apex. 2-4 ¢-geh eve Ge be NEY, 
References to the literature of the subject, especially with respect to 
other species, are given in my biological notes on the genus (Memoirs 
Boston Soc. Nat. Hi:t. iv, 92). WILLIAM TRELEASE, St. Louis, Mo. 
1, Short-styled 
tural size. 
3. Seed, 
XPLANATION OF PLATE XII.—Oxa/is Violacea L. 
plant, showing the watery tap root and bulbiferous shoots, na 
ee ndinal section through the end of a runner, < 10. 
_ Diervilla rivularis, n. sp.—Shrub two to five feet high; whole plant 
hirsutely pubescent: branchlets nearly terete: leaves subsessile, ovate Or 
oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, unequally and obtusely serrulate, pal e hee 
heath: flowers lemon yellow, larger than those of D. sessilifolia, in three 
to six or more axillary cymes, these often floriferous: calyx-lobes lanceo- 
nt €-subulate, about as long as the attenuate neck of the carpel: — 
slightly bilabiate.—First collected in flower July 6, 1880, on the beatks 0 
“Lula Falls,’ Lookout Mountain, a few miles across the Tennessee line 1 
Georgia. It grows close to the water’sedge. I have received OF ee 
ftom Kelsey brothers, Highlands, N.C., the genuine D, sessilifolia Bue? 
Which now flowers in my garden; but it is glabrous ‘ low 
Smaller, more regular flowers, which are sulphur. or greenish On is 
D. rivularis is a handsomer plant—A. GatrixcER, M.D, Nashville, Yen 
