92 LEAFLETS. 



knew the genus Frasera and admitted it as good, he could not 

 reasonably hare referred to Swertia so close an ally of typical 

 Frasera as F. thyrsiflcra, plainly is. Again : since the Swertia 

 of Linnaeus which Pursh cites as identical with his own, has 

 pentamerous flowers, Pursh must needs have placed his S. fas- 

 tigiata in Frasera on account of its tetramery, if be the same 

 thing as F. thyrsiflora. 



Nevertheless, allowance must be made for superficiality and 

 carelessness everywhere ; and if Pursh erred as to the plant's 

 having come from the Missouri Flats, he may have failed to 

 examine it closely enough to discover that its flowers were 

 tetramerouB and that it was a/J^rajir^fl. Very likely what he 

 saw was at best a mere scrap or two. 



But while I should not be surprised were the Montana plant 

 spoken of by me heretofore to be proven, some day, to be 

 Pursh's plant, I will now at least give the type before me a diag- 

 nosis, and therewith a provisional name as possibly new. 



Swertia parallel a. Stem simple, stout for the genus, 12 

 or 14 inches high, with two pairs of cauline leaves, those from 

 the root or rootstock of half the length of the stem, elliptic 

 oblong as to the blade, this tapering to a long petiolar base, all 

 traversed from base of broad petiole to near the end of the 

 blade by about 5 conspicuous whitish parallel veins: inflorescence 

 somewhat congested, its more terminal portion almost thyrsoid : 

 subulate-lanceolate sepals nearly equalling the lurid-purplish 

 not dark-colored corolla : filamenis much flattened and oblong- 

 ligulif orm, obtuse at apex behind the anthers : fruit not known. 



Jack Greek Canon, Montana, 15 July, 1896, Eydberg & 

 Bessey, n. 4699 of their distribution as represented in TJ. S. 

 Herb, (sheet 390186,. Plant more than other swertias resem- 

 bling a Frasera, especially by its notably parallel-veined foliage 



Botanizing among the hills of Monroe County, Wisconsin, in 

 early October last, the sight of no autumnal flower of the re- 

 gion was more welcome to me than that of what in bpyhood w§ 



