NOTES ON ALABAMA PLANTS 1 55 



resulting competition. When the soil is about one cm. deep, sooner 

 or later, accommodation of flowering plants other than Talinum 

 Mengesii sets in. The first one which associates with this species is 

 Alsinopsis glabra Small (Alsine glabra Michx.), yet, at least for 

 the first, without interfering with the flourishing of the Talinum 

 Mengesii. Because the former plant is a slender open branched, 

 wiry, and rather short living annual with but a few small leaves, no 

 serious overshading or crowding is ejffected, and thus both species 

 tolerate one another very well. Yet the appearance of this species 

 is a sign that the time is near at hand when T. Mengesii is doomed 

 to give up its habitat. By and by other species, well fitted to form 

 a closer plant association in a still scanty soil, begin to establish 

 themselves with Talinum Mengesii and Alsinopsis glabra. Among 

 the first of these are Crotonopsis linearis Michx., Sarothra gentian- 

 aides L., Polygala Curtissii A. Gray, Allium microscordion Small, 

 etc. These are all sun loving plants, but unlike Talinum Mengesii, 

 they maintain themselves well in the grassy swales which row 

 establish themselves on the formerly barren rock, whence that 

 species in this time of progression has already been outcrowded. 



ARUNDINARIA TECTA (wALT) MUHL. 



It is rather universally known that Arundinaria tecta like the 

 other North American species A. macrosperma Michx. does not as 

 rule flower each succeeding year, but remains sterile for longer or 

 shorter periods, generally producing flowers only at intervals of 

 several or even many years. However, such a uniform conception 

 does not prevail in regard to the arrangement of the inflorescence 

 on the plant, i. e.,^ — that part of the plant upon which the flowers 

 are borne. The interpretation of the leading manuals of the Eastern 

 flora is responsible for this difference of opinion on the character 

 in question. This is to be regretted the more since it is a case in 

 which the majority of botanists are unable to obtain first hand 

 information through actual observation because of the two factors, 

 namely; the sterility and the restricted habitat of the plant. 



Curiously enough the uncertainty arises in the diagnosis found 

 in the descriptions of Arundinaria tecta given by the authors of 

 the newer manuals, viz.— Gray's New Manual, Britton's Manual 

 of the Flora of the U. S., and Small's Flora of South-Eastern U. S., 

 while in the older manuals, viz.- — Gray's Manual, and Chapman's 

 Flora, the diagnosis of the point in question is far more complete. 



