TREES AND SHRUBS. 



SAMBUCUS SIMPSONII, Kbhd. 



Sambucus Simpsonii, n. sp. 



Leaves pinnate, glabrous, with their petioles from 10 to 16 centimetres long ; leaflets usually 

 five, sometimes seven, rarely three, the terminal leaflet obovate or oblong-obovate, short-acumi- 

 nate, gradually narrowed at the base into a slender petiolule from 1 to 1.5 centimetres in length, 

 the lateral leaflets broadly elliptical to elliptical-oblong, short-acuminate, broadly cuneate at the base, 

 those of the upper pair usually sessile ; those of the lower pair on short stalks rarely more than 3 

 millimetres long, serrate except at the base, with small, slightly spreading serratures, dark yellow- 

 ish green, lustrous and glabrous on the upper surface, with the exception of a few scattered hairs 

 on the midribs, paler and glabrous on the lower surface, from 3.5 to 7 centimetres long and from 

 1.5 to 3.5 centimetres broad ; petioles glabrous, from 3 to 4 centimetres in length. Flowers white, 

 slightly fragrant, on slender pedicels, in convex or sometimes flat cymes, from 8 to 20 centimetres 

 in diameter, with four or five rays, the terminal ray as long or longer than the lateral rays, rarely 

 shorter ; calyx-tube ovoid, the lobes ovate-oblong, acutish, about as long as the tube and slightly 

 exceeding the thick conical style ; stamens about as long as the oval lobes ; ovary usually five-, 

 rarely four-celled. Fruit subglobose, dark purplish black, about 5 millimetres in diameter ; seeds 

 usually five, triangular-oblong, 3 millimetres long, with a red-brown irregularly corrugated testa. 



A small tree, sometimes 5 metres high, with a trunk 2 decimetres in diameter, covered with light 

 brownish gray bark divided by deep furrows into flat rather narrow ridges, and slightly angled 

 branchlets greenish when they first appear, becoming light yellowish gray and during their second 

 and third years sometimes covered with thick corky excrescences. The white pith on two- or 

 three-year old branches is comparatively narrow, occupying only about one third of the diameter 

 of the stem. 



Florida : Bradentown, Manatee County, J. II Simpson, June, 1910 (type) ; Eustis, Lake County, 

 G. V. Nash, April 1-5, 1894 (No. 377) (in herb. Arnold Arboretum). 



Sambucus Simpsonii is closely related to Sambucus canadensis, which is easily distinguished by the thinner bark of 

 the stems with only shallow fissures, by the branches without excrescences and with ample pith, the seven- to nine- 

 foliolate leaves with usually oblong and larger leaflets more or less pubescent beneath, at least while young, by the larger 

 cymes with a much shorter central ray, and by the generally four-celled or sometimes three-celled and only exceptionally 

 five-celled ovary, also by its usually shrubby habit. 1 



Nash's specimens differ slightly from Simpson's specimens, which I consider the type of the species, in the central 

 ray of the inflorescence being shorter than the lateral rays, as is the case in Sambucus canadensis, and in the narrow 

 leaflets of which a few are trifoliate, bearing at the base much smaller lateral leaflets. Otherwise, particularly in the 

 small quite glabrous leaflets, in the five-seeded fruit and in the arborescent habit, it agrees perfectly with the specimens 

 from Bradentown. 



Apparently also the following specimens ought to be referred to this species. The labels, however, do not throw any 

 light on the habit of the plants or on the character of their bark. They agree in all other characters with Nash's specimens 

 and also have the lower segments in part of the leaves trifoliolate ; this tendency is most pronounced in Curtiss's speci- 

 men from Jacksonville, which has three pairs of leaflets distinctly trifoliate, only the uppermost pair being undivided. 



Florida: Sanibel Island, S. M. Tracy, May 18, 1901 (No. 7453), Lee County, Myers, around bog heads and ponds, 

 A. S. Hitchcock, July and August, 1900 (No. 172); Jacksonville, July 4, 1893, T. H. Rolfs (No. 156), April 24, 

 1894, A. H. Curtiss (No. 4757) ; Eustis, A. S. Hitchcock, June and July, 1894. Mississippi: Ocean Springs, 1895, 

 J. Skehan, June 9, 1899, S. M. Tracy (No. 6483). Louisiana: Cameron, July 4, 1903, S. M. Tracy (No. 8747). 



Alfred Rehder. 



i Tn sfinaratine- Sambucus Simpsonii from Sambuctts canadensis I have looked over a large amount of herbarium material of Sam 



