242 PROCEEDINGS : BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
A. plantaginea R. Br. Variable in size, from 1 to 4.5 dm. high, 
the stems, stolons, and younger leaves invested with whitish gland¬ 
less pubescence: basal leaves distinctly 3-nerved, ovate or obo- 
vate, generally mucronate, the blades equaling or exceeding the 
petioles; cauline leaves rather scattered, lanceolate: heads densely 
or loosely corymbose: involucre in the pistillate plant 6.5 to 8.^ 
mm. high ; the linear bracts with slightly lanate green or tawny 
herbaceous bases and more or less conspicuous white or purplish 
scarious or petaloid. tips ; the outer bracts generally blunt, the inner 
acute or bluntish: heads of the smaller staminate plants shorter, 
the less distinctly imbricated bracts with blunt oblong or linear- 
oblong, generally radiating, white petaloid tips.— Trans. Linn, soc., 
vol. 12, p. 123 ; Fernald, Asa Gray bull., vol. 5, p. 92, pi. 2, fig. 6, 
7. A. plantaginifolia Hook., FI. Bor.-Amer., vol. 1, p. 330; 
Greene, Pittonia, vol. 3, p. 173, as to staminate plant. A. decip- 
iens Greene, Pittonia, vol. 3, p. 278. Gnaphalium plantagini- 
folium L. Sp., ed. 1, p. 850. G. plantagineum L., Syst. nat., ed. 
12, p. 545. Common in southern New England where it flowers in 
late May and early June; extending northward to South Hero, Vt. 
(L. R. Jones), Jaffrey, N. H. (E. L. Rand and B. L. Robinson), 
Orono, Me. (George B. Fernald), and eastward to Mt. Desert Island, 
Me. (E. L. Rand). Professor Greene gives the southern limit of 
this species (his A. decipiens) as Maryland and Virginia. The 
following specimens in the Gray Herbarium from more southern 
stations are referred here : rich woods, Jackson, Tenn. (S. M. Bain, 
no. 69), Louisiana (Dr. Hale), the latter specimens pistillate plants. 
var. petiolata. Plant lower and more slender than the species : 
basal leaves ovate-spatulate or obovate-spatulate, obtuse or acutish, 
on slender elongated petioles: pistillate heads more closely aggre¬ 
gated; involucre often more purple tinged, generally shorter and 
with narrower bracts.—North Berwick, Me., June, 1897 (J. C. 
Parlin, no. 1,016), Jaffrey, N. H., May 29 and 31,1897 (E. L. Rand 
and B. L. Robinson, nos. 411, 412), Medford, Mass., May 11, 1854 
(Wm. Boott), Waverly, Mass., May 26, 1895, and Lexington, Mass., 
June 6, 1897 (B. L. Robinson). A very common plant in eastern 
Massachusetts, forming extensive carpets on dry slopes and in open 
woods. At Providence, R. I., and particularly in the Elmwood 
district, Mr. J. F. Collins and I found many acres of plants present¬ 
ing all imaginable gradations from this extreme variety to typical 
A. plantaginea. 
