September ii, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



363 



when it grows on the drier ground its running root-stocks 

 are tuber-bearing, while plants in wet places are free from 

 tubers. The Button Snakeroot, Eryngium Virginianum, is 

 another interesting plant among theUmbellifera:' ; the flow- 

 ers are of a dull bluish color in round dense heads. Another 

 species, E. yuccsefolium, is also here. This species has 

 long, thick parallel-veined leaves which look very much 

 like those of Yucca lilamentosa. The flowering stems are 

 taller and stouter, and the heads of the flowers are larger 

 than those of E. Virginianum. 



The Cardinal-flower is still lighting up the damp Pines 

 with its flaming red spikes of flowers, and the less con- 

 spicuous, but pretty, blue Lobelia syphilitica is near by. 

 Everywhere the damp Pines are redolent with Clethra, the 

 drought and great heat not having lessened the mass of 

 bloom. Several species of Polygala are ilowering now. 

 The bright orange heads of P. lutea are conspicuous among 

 the tall Grasses, and so are the dense red heads of P. san- 

 guinea. The much-branched P. fastigiata, with paler 

 flowers, is scattered among them. The Gerardias, too,^are 

 making a fine display at this time, especially the tall purple 

 Gerardia, its wide-spreading branches laden with large 

 rose-purple flowers, and G. auriculata, scarcely branched 

 at all, but full of flowers all along the axils of the stout 

 stem. 



The handsome Monkey-flower, Mimulus ringens, with 

 mirth-provoking face-like corolla, seems to peer at us out 

 of hidden recesses, along with the pretty Gratiola aurea, 

 which has bright golden flowers as an offset to the rich 

 purple of the Mimulus. Several species of Dodder are 

 interesting studies at this time, and one can hardly count 

 the water plants now in flower : Brasenia peltata, with dull 

 reddish-colored flowers ; the handsome Limnanthemuni 

 and the various Utricularias and Sagittarias and Eriocau- 

 lons, and the curious Valisneria spiralis, as if endowed 

 with knowledge, so as to send the staminate flowers, which 

 blossom beneath the vi'ater, to meet the pistillate on the sur- 

 face. In the drier places we find handsome twining wild 

 Beans with rose-colored flowers ; St. Andrew's Cross, with 

 pale yellow blossoms, and several Hypericums, with deeper 

 yellow flowers. Asters and Golden-rods are telling us that 

 autumn will soon be with us with its rich wealth of color. 

 Vineiand, N.J. Mary Treat. 



Notes on some Arborescent Willows of North 

 America. — I. 



Salix nigra, Marsh. — The western limit to the range of 

 this species in the Mississippi Valley is not definitely 

 known. It is reported as common in the eastern portions 

 of the states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas 

 and the Indian Territory, while, on the other hand, it is not 

 known to occur anywhere in the Rocky Mountain region ; 

 it has not been found in the Black Plills, and is replaced 

 exclusively along the headwaters of the Platte by Salix 

 amygdaloides. The limit will probably be found within, 

 rather than west of, the boundaries of the states mentioned. 

 From Louisiana it follows the Gulf coast westward, but has 

 never been credited to Mexico. While the central plateau 

 of the continent seems to present a barrier to the exten- 

 sion of S. nigra westward, a few stations at the extreme 

 south may indicate a more or less continuous line of dis- 

 tribution from Texas to southern California and thence 

 northvi'ard to the Sacramento Valley : Texas, Kerr County 

 (Heller); southern Arizona, Fort Huachuca (Palmer, 452), 

 and Tucson (Toumey) ; California, Clear Lake (Bolander) 

 and Maryville Bates (Blankinship).* 



Salix nigra x amygdaloides, Glatfelter, Trans. St. Louis 

 Acad., vi. : ■ 42J (Ap., 1894). — The easternmost stations 



* Collections made by Mv. J. D. Smith in tlie mountains of Guatemala, and which I 

 named Salix Humboldtiana, I now believe might with greater propriety have been 

 referred to S. nigra, var. falcata. But the region was so far within the recogni/.etl 

 range of the former, and so far beyond the known limit of the latter, I thought it 

 best to ke6p on the conservative side. S. Humboldtiana is only a tropical modifi- 

 cation of S. nigra, and it is to be expected that on intermediate ground when the 

 two meet determinations as between one species or the other will be more or less 

 arbitrary. 



known for Salix amygdaloides are Ithaca, New York (Pro- 

 fessor Dudley), and Montreal, Canada (Mr. J. G. Jack). 

 There is, therefore, a wide area in New England occupied by 

 S. nigra without the intrusion of S. amygdaloides. Beyond 

 the western limits of the range of S, nigra, namely, in the 

 Rocky Mountains, from Utah to British Columbia and in Ore- 

 gon and Washington, S. amygdaloides is very common 

 and exhibits no departure from the typical form. It is only 

 where the ranges of these two species overlap, as they do 

 in the Mississippi Valley, that we find the intermediate 

 forms which have been so carefully studied by Dr. Glat- 

 felter. Bentham says that " where two supposed species 

 grow together, intermixed with numerous intermediates 

 bearing good seed, and passing more or less gradually 

 from one to the other, it may generally be concluded that 

 the whole are mere varieties of one species." The Nigra- 

 amygdaloides intermediates present all the conditions thus 

 specified, but, nevertheless, they are hybrids and do con- 

 nect two good species. In New England, with amygdaloides 

 absent, we have unadulterated nigra ; in the far west, with 

 nigra absent, we have pure amygdaloides, and only where 

 these two grow together do we find the interminable con- 

 fusion of intermediates. No more decisive proof of their 

 h)'brid character could be found short of the final test of 

 growing plants from seed obtained by artificial fertilization. 



Salix Wardi, n. sp. (S. nigra. Marsh., var. Wardi, Bebb, 

 Flora of Washington, 114.) — To the full description of this 

 Willow, as at first given, it seems almost needless to add a 

 single word unless it be to emphasize the distinctions 

 which warrant its separation from Salix nigra. The leaves 

 are larger, usually broader, conspicuously glaucous and 

 prominently nerved beneath. The stipules are large, per- 

 sistent, and present with a degree of constancy notice- 

 able even among Willows. In narrow-leaved forms of S. 

 nigra " the leaves are of the same color on both surfaces, 

 which are, by the twisting of the petiole, presented almost 

 equally to the light" (Emerson). In Wardi the narrow- 

 leaved forms are more intensely glaucous beneath than 

 those with broader leaves. The aments are longer and 

 more loosely flowered, terminating lateral branchlets, the 

 growth of which is continued from the bud in the axil of 

 the uppermost leaf The capsules are larger, more glo- 

 bose-conical, under a lens minutely glandular and longer 

 pediceled. The statement made when this Willow was 

 first described that in some of its forms the leaves alone, 

 with their ample stipules, might easily be mistaken for S. 

 cordata, finds striking exemplification in Professor Short's 

 specimen in the Gray herbarium, which two no less com- 

 petent salicologists than Mr. Carey and Professor Andersson 

 have mistaken for " S. cordata angustata. '' Indeed, it is 

 apparent from the description that this identical specimen 

 served as the type of S. cordata angustata, 1 ° forma discolor, 

 Andersson (DC.,Prod.,xvi.3, 252). No leaf of genuine S. cor- 

 data angustata would have suggested the comparison with 

 S. Bonplandiana, which, as applied to Wardi, is not inapt. 



Salix occidentalis, Koch, var. longipes (Andersson), S. 

 longipes, Andersson, Proc. Am. Acad., iv., 53. S. nigra. 

 Marsh., var. longipes, Andersson, Monog. Sal., 22, and DC, 

 Prod., X vi. 3, 201. — With the exception of transferring longipes 

 from Salix nigra to S. occidentalis (Koch, Commentatio, 

 16 [1826]), which latter is clearly the type of this southern 

 species of the Amygdalinse, it is deemed best to leave all 

 the forms grouped by Andersson under S. longipes mainly 

 as they have been arranged by this acute salicologist. The 

 material is not at hand for a thorough and satisfactory re- 

 vision. Only on^ important change should be made, and 

 that is to reduce S. Wrightii, Andersson, to a mere forma 

 monstrosa of longipes forma venulosa. The short, densely 

 flowered, thick, curved aments are simply the result of an 

 abnormal contraction of the rachis. A like freak is some- 

 times observed in S. discolor. The characters drawn from 

 the capsule, believed by the author to be distinctive, are 

 common to allied forms, a fact which the paucity of Profes- 

 sor Andersson's material alone ]M-evenled him from per- 

 ceiving-. In various forms S. occidentalis occurs from 



