79 



glatcca, Finns Taeda, Nyssa biflora, and Acer rubrtini. A few 

 other plants seen there will be mentioned farther on. 



So much for the general environment of the plants to be noted 

 below. About an hour after our arrival at the farm (May 17) 

 I was walking with Mr. Holt down alongside of one of the spring 

 branches about 200 yards north of the house, and about at the 

 point where the sandy bogs ended and the richer woods began 

 I noticed a few specimens of a heart-leaf (Ilexastylis*) , and was 

 about to pass them by as being the common //. arifolia, when 

 Mr. Holt stooped down and pulled up a plant, with the remark, 

 "What's this?" I then saw at once that it had flowers very 

 different from those of //. arifolia, or any other species known 

 to me, and I made a note of the time (5:45 p. m.. Central Time), 

 as I often do when I think a new species has been discovered. 

 " To the eye the leaves of the new plant are scarcely distinguish- 

 able from those of H. arifolia, being hastate-cordate, faintly 

 mottled above with different shades of green, a few inches long, 

 with terete purplish petioles a little longer than the blades. 

 But they lack the characteristic "medicinal" odor of H. ari- 

 folia, and we found the next day that we could distinguish the 

 two species by their odor even when no flowers were present, 

 as is often the case. (Like several other perennial herbs, every 

 plant does not bloom every year, but whether the flowerless 

 ones are simply too young, or they bloom only in alternate years 

 or something like that, has not yet been determined.) 



The plant resembles its congeners in growing in small tufts, 

 with branching and slender but fleshy rootstocks. 



The calyx or perianth (called hypanthium by Small) is about 

 an inch long, greenish purple outside (like the petioles and 

 peduncles), and instead of being pitcher-shaped as in H. ari- 

 folia, is abruptly expanded near the middle, in a manner dif- 

 ficult to describe but well shown by the accompanying illustra- 

 tion. The three calyx-lobes, which sometimes spread more 



* This genus of Rafinesque's has been united with Asanim by most taxono- 

 mists who have dealt with it, except Small, but it seems abundantly distinct 

 by its superior ovary and several other characters. (Some 19th century 

 authors made it a section Heterotropa, under Asarum.) "Heart-leaf" seems 

 to be the universal common name for any species of Hexastylis in Georgia 

 and Alabama, if not throughout the South, but like many other southern 

 plant names, it does not seem to have found its way into books written by 

 northern botanists. 



