GREENE PTELEA IN THE WEST AND B0UTHWE8T. h 



Bhowing mi' specimens and remarking thai the shrub was, at the time of collecting, 

 in young Leaf and early flower, bul thai on some branches, or else upon the ground 

 beneath the bushes, Mr. Orcutl had firsl detected ;i few fruits, of which they suc- 

 ceeded, through diligenl search, in obtaining a small quantity for distribution. 



In addition to this sheel of type specimens I have one duplicate sheet before mm-. 

 and thai an excellent one, thai he presented to the < lalifornia Academy at the time. 

 Another, lc>> ample, was at the same time sent to the Herbarium of the Department 

 of Agriculture (now in the National Herbarium) al Washington; bul with this there 



arc five g 1 fruits. A sheet in the herbarium of Capt. John Donnell Smith, of 



Baltimore, in re-pert to the size of the branches and copiousness of flowers, the best 

 of all, is also a part of the original collection as made by Mr. Orcutt. 



The volume of Davenport Academy Proceedings, in which the species was pub- 

 lished, was issue.l in L884. since that date there have been at least two other collec- 

 tions of Ptelea made on the peninsula, one bj Mr. Orcutt at Santo Tomas, a locality 

 not maritime hut at some distance inland among t he mountains; this in 1886, and 

 another by Mr. Brandegee from an inland desert district much further southward; 

 this in 1889. All these specimens, of both collectors, have been distributed For /'. 

 apU ra, yet are not at all of that species. Their respective characters a- distinct ha\ e 

 been given above. 



Of the figure, published in the third volume of Garden and Forest, purporting to 

 represent /'. aptera, there is somewhat to be said. A.s to the flowering branch, with 

 immature and not even full-grown foliage, one can hut admire its faithfulness to the 

 specimens of the maritime original as in the herbaria; hut the right-hand figure 

 represents, first of all. a strong phytologic improbability. In no species of Ptelea is 

 the foliage much more than half grown at flowering time; hut here we have the 

 representation of a fruiting specimen with foliage exactly like that of the flowering 

 specimen, even as to size. This can not he true to nature. Again, no herbarium 

 specimens of /'. aptera—] mean the original, from Punta Banda— had been collected 

 in mature foliage, or even with fruits attached to the branches, at the time that 

 figure was made. Therefore the drawing must he thought of as in a degree fictitious. 

 And a third reason for my thinking it a sad piece of patchwork is that no such fruits 

 as those figured were collected either by Parry or Orcutt, at least at the original sta- 

 tion of /'. aptera. They differ from the originals greatly in size, being nearly three 

 times as large, and they are most different in respect to outline. N<> one ha\ ing the 

 least command of botanical terminology could have described those figured as 

 " broadly ovate " or as "round-ovate." Their form is subquadrate-o val ; also their 

 margins are evidently obtuse, while in real /'. aptera they are not only acute hut 

 carinately so. 



Of the artist's skill and faithfulness to the materials set before him to be put 

 together, there is no question. The character of the tuberculation marking the 

 whole surface of the nut. and so completely unlike that of any genuine Ptelea, is well 

 brought out. 



Now. since all the specimens on which this figure is based were collected either 

 by Dr. Parry or Mr. Orcutt. 1 think it probable that Mr. Orcutt alone collected the 

 fruits figured, ami not at Punta Panda, hut at some distance inland, namely at Santo 

 Tomas. and in the middle of the month of May. in L886, or three years and nearly 

 three months later than the date of the gathering of the Punta Banda type. The 

 only sheet I have seen of the Santo Tomas shrub bears specimens in mature foliage, 

 hut there is n<» fruit. On characters of the foliage alone, 1 have been obliged to 

 make these specimens the type of a new species. But I trust that time ami investi- 

 gation may verify my conjecture that fruits of the garden and forest plat.' are those 

 of my /'. obscura. 



Dr. Parry's remark that the main difference between the unit of /'. aptera and 

 the other Bpecies "t the genus lay in the absence of the wing, i> one that came of a 



