208 



MEMOIRS OF THE XEW YORK BOTANICAL GAKDEX 



ingiy energetic and untiring in their work, but could not fully 

 supply the deliciency in my service. The duplicates secured, 

 about 15,000 in number, have been distributed with great care by 

 the H. K. Mulford Company to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, the Gray Her- 

 barium of Harvard University, and the Philadelphia Academy 

 of Xatural Sciences, in this country, besides small sets to the 

 Field Museum and to several specialists. Besides small pack- 

 ages sent to various European specialists, rather large sets have 

 gone to the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, the Berlin Botanic 

 Garden, and the National Museum at La Paz, Bolivia. 



The collection here described is of peculiar interest, because 

 of its many structures which disagree with existing knowledge of 

 the respective groups to which they belong. A diandrous Costus, 

 a scandent Rupreclitia, an arborescent Acacia Avith climbing 

 branches, a Borreria bearing glands on the face of its petals, a 

 dioecious Seemannia, a Solanum with sagittate dehiscent anthers 

 and tlie iilaments of Bassovia, are but a few of the anomalous 

 structures described in the folloAAing pages, which start one on 

 fresh speculations as to the nature of generic limitations. In 

 reviewing these phenomena, as well as many which relate to spe- 

 cific demarcations, one can but smile when he thinks of the dic- 

 tum that constitutes the stronghold of "anti-evolutionists," that 

 everything is made after its kind and stays so made ! 



DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW GENERA AND SPECIES 



AuSaiACEAE 



Alisma boliviana 



Glabrous. Leaves numerous, erect when young, later spread- 

 ing widely, the petioles to 6 cm. long, slender. Blades 2 to 3 cm. 

 long, 6 to 9 mm. wide, lance-oblong, acuminate and acute, the 

 base very gradually tapering into the petiole. Inflorescence 

 much exceeding the leaves, mostly compound, peduncled, the 

 whorls sometimes with more than 20 flowers, bracted, the bracts 

 sessile, broadly ovate and acute. Pedicels very unequal, to 3 cm. 

 long, filiform, the base of the flower truncate, slightly intruded. 

 Sepals 2 mm. long, broadly ovate, acute, thick. Petals white, 

 hyaline, twice the length of the sepals. Stamens 6. the anthers 



