SAXIFRAGACEAE 185 



HYDRANGEA, Linnaeus. The Hydrangkas. 

 Hydrangea arborescens, L. 



A deciduous shrub, with crooked or drooping stems two or 

 three feet long, and flat-topped clusters of small white flowers, the 

 outer ones often enlarged and sterile like those of the garden hy- 

 drangeas. Blooms mostly in May. 



Occasionally cultivated for ornament. The roots are said to 

 be somewhat astringent. 



Grows in ravines and on bluffs well protected from fire, 

 mostly in the northern parts of the state. 



lA. Lauderdale County (Mohr). Bluffs on south side of Mussel 

 Shoals in Colbert County. 



IB. Rocky woods near Blount Springs. 



2A. Pisgah gorge, Jackson County (Harbison). Slopes of Lookout 

 Mountain near Valley Head. DeKalb and Cullman Counties (Mohr). Near 

 Short Creek, Marshall County. Warnock Mountain, Blount County. 



2B. Walker, Jefferson and Tuscaloosa Counties. 



3. Blount and Talladega Counties. 



4. Coldwater Mountain, Calhoun County. Clay County (Mohr). 



5. Cleburne, Clay, Chilton and Elmore Counties. 

 6A. Franklin, Pickens, Hale and Elmore Counties. 

 6C. Autauga County. 



7. Near Demopolis. Hatcher's Bluff, Dallas County. 



lOE. Near Elba. 



low. Near Greenville and Claiborne. 



Hydrangea cinerea, Small. 



According to H. St. John (see bibliography) the plants de- 

 scribed under this name include forms of H. radiafa Walt, and 

 two varieties of H. arborescens (oblonga and Dcainii). But as 

 nearly all my field work in Alabama was done before that opinion 

 was published, these different forms are not separated in my 

 notes, and will have to be treated as one for the present. H. ar- 

 borescens cordafa. treated separately with some hesitation by Dr. 

 Mohr, is regarded by Mr. St. John as indistinguisha1)le from H. 

 arborescens. Generally speaking, this aggregate differs from typ- 

 ical H . arborescens in having the leaves larger, or tomentose be- 

 neath, or both. ( The extreme with leaves white beneath, H . radi- 

 ata, is not certainly known in Alabama.) 



These large-leaved plants have much the same habitat as H . 



arborescens, but tend toward richer or shadier places. 



lA. Banks of Tennessee River near Florence (Alohr). 



IB. On Alountain limestone in Madison and Marshall Counties. 



