18 
The Bulletin 
forty species. The plant is also known by the common names white 
sanicle and rich weed, and bears the technical name Eupatorinm urti- 
csefolium Reich., which is synonymous with E. ageratoides L. f. and 
E. boreale Greene. The specific name indicates that the leaves re¬ 
semble in appearance those of the wood nettle. This plant (Plate 1) 
grows in rich woods bordering streams, being confined to rather low, 
swampy situations, or within shaded mountain coves, particularly on 
northern slopes. It often grows so luxuriantly in these latter situa¬ 
tions within North Carolina as to become the principal vegetation on 
the forest floor. 
It is evidently very widely distributed since its range is said to ex¬ 
tend from New Brunswick southward to Florida, Georgia, and Louis¬ 
iana, and westward to Nebraska and Oklahoma. 
Specimens in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden* 
show that it has been collected in Ontario, Maine, Vermont, Massachu¬ 
setts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, District of 
Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Illi¬ 
nois, Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. 
This would indicate that it very probably occurs in all of the other 
States east of the Mississippi river as could best be ascertained by ex¬ 
aminations of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard LTniversity and of the 
United States National Museum. 
The plant is perennial rooted, varies in height from one to five feet, 
and is more or less branched. The leaves are three to six inches long, 
opposite, long stalked, and thin. They are ovate or slightly cordate in 
outline, are pointed, and the leaf margin is coarsely and sharply ser¬ 
rate. The base of the leaf is cordate or is abruptly narrowed into a 
long, slender petiole or stalk. Furthermore, the leaves are strongly 
three-ribbed. The flowers open from July to November, and are very 
attractive since they are clustered in snowy white, compound corymbs. 
The involucre is narrowly bell-shaped or campanulate, being composed 
of linear, acute bracts. The achenes or seeds are smooth. 
The plants are for the most part smooth, but some possess a coating 
of hairs. To those which are distinctly hairy, the appropriate varietal 
name villicaule is applied by some. Intergrading forms between the 
smooth and hairy forms may be found in any area where this plant 
occurs. 
*This information was furnished through the kindness of Mr. Percy Wilson of the New 
York Botanical Garden, to whom thanks are hereby extended. 
