338 COVILLE 



collected at Point Barrow by Murdoch. This disposal of the name 

 phlehophylla and the consequent redescription of the skeleton-leaved 

 plant under the name palaeoneura is clearly inadmissible for the rea- 

 sons given above, and furthermore because the specimen in the Co- 

 lumbia University Herbarium marked '' No. 96 Herb. H[ooker]," 

 w^hich Dr. Rydberg has cited as the type of phlebophylla^ although a 

 mere fragment consisting of a fruiting catkin and a single leaf, is 

 identical vs^ith our skeleton-leaved plant. 



It is of interest to note that Trautvetter in his original description of 

 this plant under the name buxifolia^ the type of w^hich came from St. 

 Law^rence Island, Bering Sea, calls attention particularly to the skele- 

 tonizing of the old leaves: "Folia . . . anno primo hand articulis 

 solvuntur, sed marcescunt, fusca evadunt, quo statu per secundum an- 

 num plantae adhaerent, tertio vero foliorum parenchyma evanescit re- 

 teque venosum cancellatum foliorum plures adhuc annos persistit . . . 

 Species foliis edurantibus notabilis."^ 



The name Salix a7igloru7n Cham.^ has sometimes been used for this 

 species because the specimens of Chamisso and Eschscholtz identified 

 as Salix anglorurn by Chamisso are identical vs^ith Andersson's fhleb- 

 ophylla. Dr. Rydberg has pointed out,^ however, that Chamisso did 

 not describe the species but cited Robert Brown's Salix arctica^ a 

 species of eastern Arctic America to which the name anglorum must 

 therefore attach. 



A plant which has sometimes been confused with phlebopkylla^ but 

 which is readily distinguishable by its promptly deciduous leaves, often 

 glaucous beneath, is referred to in the present paper under the name 

 polar is, 



33. SALIX LEIOCARPA (Cham.) Coville. Least Willow. 



Plate XLi, Figure 2. 



Salix polaris leiocarpa Cham. Linnaea 6 : 542. 1831. 



Salix rotundifolia Trautv. Nouv. Mem. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 2 : 304. /. //. 

 1832. 



This charming little plant is the smallest of the Alaskan willows. 

 It forms close tufts or cushions, the very slender stoloniform stems im- 

 bedded in the soil, and the leaves, orbicular, smooth, entire, bright 

 green on both surfaces, from a few millimeters to a centimeter in 

 diameter, rising a centimeter or two above the surface. The type 



^Trautv. Nouv. Mem. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 2: 302-303. 1832. 



2 Cham. Linnaea 6 : 541. 1831. 



3 Rydberg, Bull. N. Y. Bot. Gard. i : 266. 1899. 



