39 



WESTERN SPECIES, NEW AND OLD.— I. 

 -^ Veratruiii teiiuipetalum 



Eower part of plant not seen, but apparent[y stout; upper 

 part of the stem somewhat pubescent with short woolly hairs: 

 leaves bright green, glabrate or slightly pubescent with short 

 hairs, the upper ones lanceolate, acuminate: inflorescence rather 

 lax, the branches ascending: perianth presumably white, about 

 8mm. long, the segments oblong-lanceolate, narrowed at the 

 base, I mm. or a little more in width. 



The type, in the U. S. National Herbarium, was collected 

 by Dr. Scoville in Colorado in 1870. Only the inflorescence 

 and a single leaf from the upper part of the stem is represented 

 on the sheet. It is a species remarkable for the narrowness o^ 

 the perianth segments. The original label bears the name of 

 Veratrum alburn^ an Old World species not found in this coun- 

 try. To this species is also referable a specimen collected by 

 Carl F. Baker at Rabbit Ear Pass, northern Colorado, altitude 

 9500 feet, July 20, 1896. 



^/ For some years the writer has been of the opinion that 



Viorna should be restored to generic rank, and had under con- 

 sideration the transferring of our species long included under 

 Clematis as a section. Nearly all of the species belong to the 

 southeastern part of the United States, and those have recently 

 been transferred to their proper genus by Dr. Small in his ad- 

 mirable "Flora of the Southeastern United States." 



Besides V. Arizoiiica^ there is another species, found in 

 eastern Washington and northern Idaho which I have collected, 

 and which is of peculiar interest. For many years Clematis 

 hirsutissima Pursh, has traditionally been associated with the 

 plant called Anemone patents var. Nuttalliana^ but some years 

 ago a set of the plants collected by Lewis, from which Pursh 

 described many new species, among them Clematis hirsutissima^ 



