112 



to 20 cm., and the reduction of the number of petals from fifteen 

 to nine in the bloom which came two years later from the same 

 rootstock. 



New and Noteworthy Northwestern Plants — Part 9, 

 Notes on North American Thermopsis 



Harold St. John 



Thermopsis montana Nutt. var. ovata (B. L. Robinson) St. John, 



comb. nov. 

 T. montana ovata subsp. B. L. Robinson ex Piper, U. S. Nat. 



Herb., Contrib. 11:349-350, 1906. 

 T. xylorhisa A. Nelson, Bot. Gaz. 52:265-266, 1911. 

 T. ovata (Robins.) Rydberg, Torrey Bot. Club, Bull. 40:43, 



1913. 



The writer has once previously studied the stout Theniiopsis 

 with broad elliptic leaflets growing in Idaho and Washington, and 

 has published the conclusion that there was only one species pres- 

 ent, T. montana, and that the subsp. oz'ata was a synonym of the 

 species (St. John, Fl. S. E. Wash. 233-234, 1937). 



M. M. Larisey has recently published a revision of the North 

 American species of TJierinopsis (Mo. Bot. Gard., Ann. 27:245- 

 258, 1940). She accepts both montana and ovata as species, keys 

 them and describes them. She accepts as valid T. ovata (Robins.) 

 Rydb. (1913) while listing as its synonym T. xylorrhiza A. Nels. 

 (1911). This name of Nelson's, which should be spelled as it was 

 in the original publication, T. .vylorliiaa, was the first one published 

 in the category. Hence, this name should be adopted if the plant is 

 accepted as a species. When studying the problem at Pullman, 

 Wash., the writer had available abundant collections from the 

 Pacific Northwest, including an isotype of T. montana subsp. ovata. 

 Now, at the Gray Herbarium, he has similar collections, the t3'pe 

 of the subspecies, as well as large collections of T. montana Nutt. 

 from the Rocky Mountains and the Nuttall type specimen. An 

 isotype specimen of T. .vylorhisa is also available. It is now evident 

 that the true T. montana Nutt. of the central and eastern Rocky 



