185 



The abnormal blades, or fragments of blades, appeared to have 

 originated at the earliest stage of leaf-formation, rather than to 

 have been outgrowths at a later period. Furthermore, a de- 

 cided disarrangement of the fibrovascular bundles of the midrib 

 suggests a different explanation. Such a condition might result 

 from the cohesion, or rather fusion, of the midribs of two leaves, 

 one superimposed upon the other, the blade of the uppermost 

 being either reduced or fragmentary. But to whatever cause 

 this malformation was due, it is probably one of infrequent occur- 

 rence, since none of a like nature is recorded by Masters. 

 San Bernardino, California. 



SHORTER NOTES 



A NEW MiKANiA FROM CuBA. — Mikaiiia alba sp. nov. Gla- 

 brous, except the involucral bracts. Primary branches round, 

 striate, secondary ones hexagonal, canaliculate : petioles 4-6 

 mm. long, slightly winged ; leaf-blades coriaceous, lanceolate- 

 ovate, obtuse at the apex, rounded or obscurely cordate at the 

 base, 4-5.5 cm. long, 1.6-1.8 cm. broad, diminishing in the in- 

 florescence to linear or subulate bracts, three-nerved, the nerves 

 deeply impressed in the reticulate-rugose upper side, prominent 

 on the lower, the margin conspicuously revolute : inflorescence 

 bracted, paniculate, ultimately composed of opposite, widely di- 

 varicate racemes, with a terminal one ; racemes with 8-24 heads ; 

 heads opposite below, alternate above, pedicelled, subtended by a 

 subulate bractlet much exceeding the pedicel ; involucral bracts 

 oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, 5-6 mm. long, brownish at the center, 

 becoming transparent towards the ciliate margin, as long as or 

 slightly shorter than the corolla ; pappus white, equalling the 

 corolla or nearly so, armed with minute spinules ; corolla white, 

 tubular-campanulate, scarcely longer than the involucral bracts, 

 with oblong-lanceolate, acute lobes, thrice shorter than the tube, 

 or less ; stamens as long as the corolla, rarely exserted, with cyl- 

 indric anthers ; style-branches widely divaricate, subsequently 

 recurved-coiling, finely tuberculate : achenes glabrous. 



Collected in the Sierra Maestra, at an elevation of 3,400 feet, 

 on Jiquarito Mountain, Sevilla Estate, province of Santiago, Cuba, 

 by the writer on September 18, 1906; no. 5^(5 (type), in herb. 

 New York Botanical Garden. 



