450 
TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 
23. J. tenitis, Willd., is one of the most common and best 
known, but also one of the most variable species, and can 
always be readily distinguished from all the allied ones by its 
flat leaves, which only in the narrow-leaved forms are on the 
margin slightly involute; by the lanceolate, subulate sepals 
of equal length, which somewhat exceed the ovate, retuse 
capsule, and principally by the small, mostly oblique, delicately 
lineolate seeds, with distinct but short, whitish appendages; 
they are very similar to those of J. effusus, and are mostly 
0.25-0.28, rarely only 0.20 line long. 
Notwitstanding the great variability in the size of the plant 
(from a few inches to two feet), in the size and development 
of the one, two, or even three spathes, and in the size and full¬ 
ness of the inflorescence (1—5 or 6 inches in length), I can 
distinguish only the following well marked varieties: 
Yar. /?. secundus , ramis paniculae spatham excedentibus 
erectis incurvis; floribus minoribus secundis.— J. secundus , 
Poir. 
Yar. y. congestus , ramis paniculae spatha brevioribus abbre¬ 
viate ; floribus fere in capitulurh congestis; sepalis fuseo-stri- 
atis ; capsula e stramineo fusea. 
The legitimate J, tenuis is found over the whole country, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and south into the tropical A * 
parts of America, in the West Indies, and in western Europe. 
—The interesting and quite distinct looking variety with 
unilateral flowers has usually 4 or 5, but sometimes even 6 
or 7, flowers on a single* branch, which is curved inward and 
not backward, as is the case in Borraginece , the one-sided 
inflorescence of which bears a great analogy to that of 
our plant. Most of the specimens of this variety which fell 
under my observation were obtained in Pennsylvania, and a 
few in New England; forms approaching it are found in 
other regions also.—The variety y, which occurs in California 
(San Francisco, JBolander; Monterey, Brewer') and in Colo¬ 
rado, Hally is very striking; its apparent heads, 4-9 lines in 
diameter and nearly as high, bear flowers a little larger than 
ordinary, with darker colored sepals. The seeds of both 
varieties are undistinguishable from those of the common 
plant. V * 
24. J.dichotomus, Elliott, Sketch, 1,406 ; Chap. Flor. 493; 
though closely allied to the preceding, is a well marked 
species, and would not have so often been confounded with 
it, if the characters, as given by Elliott, had not been over¬ 
looked. The terete leaves, which are marked by a shallow 
groove on their upper side, distinguish it at once, even when 
* Thes , e branches are only apparently single axes, for in reality they 
are formed of many short, successive branches. 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Missouri 
Botanical 
copyright reserved garden 
