123 



branches, and of small plants which looked as if they were not 

 going to bloom that year. It seems likely that this perennial in 

 the first year or two from seed may produce only simple leaves 

 and no flowers, and that trifoliate leaves are most prevalent in 

 the older plants. A condition analogous to this is known in 

 Erythronium and Trillium, and perhaps many other genera of 

 herbs, which produce small or simple leaves and no flowers in 

 their first few years. 



On the way to Midland by bus I had noted a few specimens 

 of B. leucophaea along the highway (which closely parallels the 

 railroad most of the way), and on walking back along the railroad 

 I came to some specimens of it before I had gone a mile. It was 

 much less abundant than B. sphaerocarpa, and also less con- 

 spicuous, on account of being lower, with racemes nodding so 

 that their tips often rested on the ground, and the flowers being 

 paler. 



All the B. leucophaea there had lemon-yellow flowers, in- 

 stead of cream-colored as in the Grand Prairie of Arkansas 

 (and in the closely related B. hracteata of dry woods of Middle 

 Georgia and Alabama), but that does not necessarily indicate 

 that it should be regarded as a different variety, though it 

 could perhaps properly be called a form, as in the case of 

 Sitilias caroliniana, which has both yellow and cream-colored 

 flowers in different plants, as I pointed out a few years ago.^ 

 I had seen the same form a few days before, with Prof. C. A. 

 Brown, in cut-over long-leaf pine uplands in St. Helena Parish. 

 (Incidentally that seems to be the first time it had been found 

 east of the Mississippi River; and it is not mentioned in Small's 

 Manual of the Southeastern Flora, 1933). 



Continuing eastward, I soon began to see another Baptisia, 

 that appeared intermediate between the two just mentioned. I 

 did not pay much attention to it at first, thinking I would not 

 collect it until I saw more of it, not wishing to endanger the 

 supply if it was anything rare. But after walking four or five 

 miles I noticed that there was no more B. leucophaea in sight, 

 and the intermediate form was likewise missing. I was cogitat- 

 ing whether to go back to where I had last seen the unfamiliar 

 plant, when I came upon B. leucophaea again, about a mile 

 west of Crowley, and immediately the intermediate form too. 

 I then decided to take no more chances of missing it, and col- 



^Torreya33: 143-146. 1933. 



