1900 ] BRIEFER ARTICLES 117 
with the denser material on the concave side; at least this would ordi- 
narily take place. But such a bend in one plane is changed to a twist 
whenever the proper forces are present. In the case before us, we have 
not only the proper forces to cause a twist but also to give the motion 
constancy of direction, 7. ¢., with watch hands. ‘These forces are found 
in the spiral arrangement of the material. In this case we should 
expect a waving or serpentine bend rather than a close twist. The 
fact that many cells are found, after applying reagents, in all stages 
from a beginning bend in one plane to a wavy twist, leads to the con- 
clusion that this is, perhaps, the principal force of torsion when the 
lumen is very eccentric. 
It is probable that both these causes act in conjunction to pro- 
duce the generally resulting perfect torsion. — L. MUuRBACH, Centrat 
High Schooi, Detroit, Mich. 
SOME NEW SPECIES OF WYOMING PLANTS. 
Silene Tetonensis.— Stems several, somewhat cespitose from a mul- 
tcipital caudex, 10-25 high, 1—7-flowered: minutely pubescent 
throughout, glandular above and often throughout, the leaves often 
glabrous except on the margins: leaves connate at base and sheathing 
by somewhat scarious membranes, the petioles often sparsely ciliate ; 
the radical long-petioled, linear or narrowly oblanceolate, 2-8 long, 
2~6™ wide; the cauline linear or the lowest pair narrowly oblanceo- 
late: calyx obovoid, 7-10" long, with ro purplish nerves, these anas- 
‘omosing somewhat near the summit, 5-toothed, the teeth rotund or 
thomboid-triangular, obtuse with very broad membranous margins: 
nes Sedat long, greenish-white or rose-color, more or less exserted ; 
aien so broad, spatulate, with the margins entire or bluntly toothed 
neas the summit, not at all auricled, 3-nerved, the nerves branched and 
“nastomosing in the limb; this 3™ long, as broad as the claw or gen- 
aes a little narrower, with no lateral lobes, emarginate or cleft to the 
middle, the lobes entire and rounded, the appendages much broader 
than long and bluntly toothed : stamens nearly as long as the claws of the 
— the filaments glabrous; styles 3, 1™ long: carpophore very 
rt. 
Related to the western S. Watsoni, but is readily distinguished from that 
by j 
Y Its broader radical leaves and very different petals. 
