418 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. Ill, No. 6 
INTERESTING SPECIMENS OF SPECULARIA 
PERFOLIATA. 
Edo Ci.aassen. 
Peculiar specimens of this plant were found on sandy soil, 
forming a thin layer on a horizontal sandstone at the Thompson 
Ledges, Geauga County, O. They are very unlike those usually 
found, their stems being often quite procumbent 20 to 100 mm. 
long, wiry, thread-like and somewhat hairy. The lower leaves 
are round, petioled and often opposite ; the upper are roundish or 
oval, decurrent into the short petiole; the uppermost sessile 
roundish, cordate-clasping and alternate. All are more or less 
crenate and ciliate-hairy ; flowers 1 to 3 in the axils of the leaves ; 
calyx unequally 3-4 lobed ; corolla none or rudimentary (?); 
capsules opening from below the middle into two uplifted valves ; 
seeds lenticular. Some of the capsules furnished a few seeds, 
which were sown several years later in a more fertile soil in order 
to ascertain the shape and size of the plants when grown under 
more favorable conditions. Only a single seed germinated, pro- 
ducing a plant very different from those collected on the rock, 
having a stronger and larger upright stem. During its growth 
it was ascertained that, like those described above, it had the 
lower leaves petioled, but not (as Gray’s and Britton & Brown’s 
Manuals say) all cordate-clasping. A number of measurements 
of the leaves and their petioles were taken, which showed that 
the six lower ones were petioled and the lowest two were almost 
round, while the next four were oval or even spatulate. 
The following table shows the measurements taken : 
Leaves. 
Length of Leaf. 
Width. 
Length of Petiole. 
1st 
5 mm 
4 mm 
2 Him 
2nd 
14111m 
. . 9 mm 
^rd 
. . 18 mm 
not measured . . . 
7 mm 
4th 
17 mm 
not measured ... 
3 111m 
Sth 
11 mm 
not measured 
. 2 mm 
6th 
10 mm 
not measured . . . 
. ... 1 111m 
7 th 
.... 10 mm 
. .not measured .... 
0 mm 
8th and following ones not measured all cordate-clasping and without petioles. 
