105 



from any other form which has been described or which he has 

 in cultivation, as to deserve consideration as a distinct species. 

 On account of its exceptionally long racemes, showy flowers, and 

 relatively long-flowering season it will undoubtedly prove to be 

 a plant of horticultural value, ranking with R. viscosa and R. lon- 

 giloba as an ornamental shrub and tending on account of its 

 suckers to form dense clumps. The description of this proposed 

 species is as follows: 



Robinia Ashei, sp. nov. A shrub 1-3 m. high, with smooth 

 brown bark on the stem, which as well as the more vigorous 

 branchlets is armed with nearly terete slender stipular spines 

 1-1.3 cm. long. Shoot of season, petiole, rachis, peduncle and 

 calyx covered with stiff gland-tipped, but not viscid, hairs or 

 weak bristles of unequal length, mixed with short grayish non- 

 glandular pubescence. Leaves 1.2-2 dm. long, formed of 13 

 to 17 oblong-ovate or elliptic leaflets, 3-4.6 cm. long and 1.2-2.3 

 cm. wide, appressed silky canescent as they unfold, at length 

 nearly glabrous above, and sparingly appressed pubescent 

 beneath except on midrib and petiolule which are permanently 

 pubescent. Racemes .9-1.9 dm. long, as long as the leaves or 

 shorter, 18-32-flowered; flowers 22-24 nim. long, bright rose- 

 purple with keel partly white; calyx tubular, 12-15 mm. long, 

 fully one half as long as the flower, the long acuminate glandular- 

 hirsute divisions 8-10 mm. long. This plant is not known to set 

 fruit. 



Oconee County, South Carolina, W. W. Ashe. This plant 

 resembles R. longiloha Ashe(Journ. El. Mitch. Sci. Soc. 37: 175) 

 in the size and color of its flowers and in its gland-tipped, non- 

 viscid pubescence, but is well separated by having longer racemes, 

 much longer calyx lobes and its greater pubescence. 



For this species I propose the name of Robinia Ashei in 

 honor of its discoverer, W. W. Ashe of Washington, D. C, who 

 has for several years been cultivating the dwarf locusts. 



Salem College, 

 Winston-Salem, N. C. 



