EVACTOMA 57 



pallid especially on the lower face: upper face pallid or slightly 

 greenish. Internodes short, 2.5-4 cm. long; branches also whitish 

 glaucous surpassing the first inflorescence. Cymes peduncled: 

 flowers numerous 3-4 mm. long, campanulate. Corolla segments 

 narrow, obtuse or rounded at the apex and cleft below the middle. 

 Sepals linear-lanceolate or lanceolate surpassing the sinus of the 

 corolla lobes. Flowers whitish or greenish. 



Although the foliage of this plant as to size and shape resembles 

 that described by Dr. Greene for A. isophyllum,^ the dense white 

 powdery glaucousness of the leaves is strikingly characteristic as 

 vegetative mark. The flowers are very different, campanulate 

 creamy white to greenish with long corolla lobes, and .sepals reaching 

 above their sinuses. The plant is one of the most leafy I have 

 seen in the genus. I designate as type a single specimen No. 9167, 

 gathered by myself in the dune region of Lake Michigan at Millers, 

 Lake Co., Indiana. The plant was collected July 8, 191 1, and is 

 in the Herbarium of the University of Notre Dame. 



Dept. of Botany. 



Notre Dame, Ind. 



Evactoma. 



BY J. A. NIEUWLAND. 



The plant now generally called Silene stellata (Linn.) Alton, 

 has held a rather uncertain place in botany according to the opinions 

 at least of the older phytographers as is evident from the fact 

 of its having been relegated several times from one genus to another 

 and back again. Linnaeus himself had the plant in Cucubalus} 

 Alton transferred it to Silene} Rafinesque"' considered it as 

 sufficiently characteristic to constitute the type of a new genus 

 which he called Evactoma. 



' Linnaeus, C. Species Plantarum p. 414, (1753). also 2nd Ed. p. 

 592, {1762). 



Hort. Ups. p. no, (1737) " Cucubalus foliis quaternis." 



^ Aiton, f. Hoetus Kewensis, 3: p. 84 (181 1). 



■' Rafinesque, C. S. Autikon Botanikon, pt. i, Cent. III., p. 23, 

 (181 5-1 840). The word evidently according to his own explanation of 

 derivation should be written Euactoma, from the Greek en, well riijyw, 

 k'riifKry, (root r(>;a)-cut azrts", ray or petal, referring to the deeply cleft petals. 



