Epiphegus Virginiana

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Vol. VI, No, 12.] Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. [New York, Dec, 1875,

§ 66. Epiphegus Virginiana, Bart., Var. Havana, Austin. —
Differs as follows: Plant smaller, more slender, of a very pale
almost pure white color throughout (very slightly tinged with
yellow) becoming yellowish brown in herbarium; bracts a little
longer and narrower, particularly the pair at the base of the calyx ;
pedicels longer (sometimes -£ inch or more long) ; calyx smaller and
of a thinner texture, the teeth not keeled nor so broadly nerved ;
corolla more numerously and finely nerved, of a much thinner
and more lax texture, the upper lip about 5 nerved, its apex much
more vaulted and less broadly (until flattened out, indistinctly)
notched, longer than the lower lip, teeth of the lower lip about one
half as long and less complicate-keeled ; stamens in pairs, barely
didynamous, more exserted ; stigma a little smaller; pod smaller;
seeds a trifle narrower ; the undeveloped corollas of the lower fertile
flowers are much more narrowly conic; and it flowers two or three
weeks earlier.— On the roots of the Beech, on the east side of High
Peak, Catskill Mountains, Sept. 9th, 1875, about a hundred plants,
more or less. On a three day's tramp we saw not a single plant of
the typical form. Rau and Austin.

Editorial. — Mr. Austin is inclined to think his plant even
more distinct than a mere variety. On the other hand, it appears
to us merely a difference of form due mainly to premature and
feebler development. We have found Epiphegus with the unopened
flowers as early as the 19th of August and as far north as Hamilton
Co., N. Y., and. still more advanced in Morris Co., N. J., Sept. 1st.
These earlier growths seem to us intermediate between Mr.
Austin's and the common form.

Mr. Austin in his note speaks of an occasional malformation of
the stamens, and we have found similar cases among our early
flowering specimens. As the upper flowers seem to have lost their
usefulness to the plant, we might expect them to show irregulari-
ties as a sign of degeneration, and, moreover, as the species itself
seems to be entirely self-fertilizing, it is in accordance with theory
that it should at length produce feebler forms, such as the present
subject. The noting these forms affords valuable material for
testing the theory. There are a number of our native plants which
produce flowers of two sorts, the more showy of which are for the
most part sterile, but particularly adapted to keep the vigor of the
race by an occasional intercrossing. The study of these plants
and a comparison of the various degrees to which the disuse has
extended would be an interesting contribution to science.

Most plants have several modes of propagating themselves,
two or more kinds of flowers, buds, rhizomes, etc., of which usually
only one or two are used. But, if the reproductive energy is re-
stricted in one direction, we generally find it expending itself in
another. Thus a plant that spreads freely by its roots is sparing
in blossoms, but may often be thrown into bloom by hindering the
growth of the roots. Epiphegus seems to present an extreme case.
While the pollen of the closed (cleistogamic) flowers is extraordi-
narily precocious and effective, there seem to be almost insuperable
difficulties in the way of the fertilization of the open flowers. We

66

have, indeed, found the capsule of one (an early flowering speci-
men ?) considerably enlarged and the flower falling off, but suspect
that the fertilization was effected, before the flower was fully
opened, by an accidental conjunction of the anther and stigma.
And yet as the stamens are didynamous and the stigma at first
protruding in advance of them and afterwards reflexed, the
original plan would appear to be trimorphic. We hope to get
further insight into this subject.

§ 67. The cold of last winter — I have, during the past sum-
mer, made observations on the effects of the severity of the last
winter on the trees and shrubs of the region between the Hudson
and the Sound, as far as the Connecticut line. I have travelled in
five different directions in distances ranging from seven to twelve
miles. The Locust (Robinia Pseudacacia, L.) has suffered greatly.
I have not seen any trees that are uninjured ; some are entirely dead,
others with dead tops. Even in groves containing more than a
thousand trees every one is injured. I have also travelled along
the shore of Long Island, immediately opposite, but did not notice
a tree that had suffered. The foliage of our apple-trees has been
small and of a pale sickly green, and fruit has been wanting. Two
large specimens of Hibiscus Syriacus in my own inclosure, over
twenty feet high and more than thirty years old, have died, and
many smaller specimens in adjacent grounds were greatly injured
or totally killed. Several varieties of Rhododendron which had
heretofore been considered handy were destroyed. But the Coni-
ferous Evergreens, so far as I have observed, have escaped injury.
White Plains. O. R. Willis.

§ 68. Omphalaria pulvinata, Nyl. — I send a specimen of this
plant, recently gathered by me from the rocks at this place, and which
Prof. Tuckerman writes me is new to the flora of North America.
Pouo-hkeepsie, Dec. VJth. W. R. Gekatcd.

§ 69. Fissidens hyalinus, Wils. & Hook. — Dr. H. C. Beardslee,
Painesville, Ohio, sends a specimen of this plant, one of the most
rare and local of our Western Mosses, and writes: "The original
locality near Cincinnati, where it was first discovered by the late
Mr. T. G. Lea, is lost, and I am informed by Mr. Lesquereux that
mine is the only locality now known."

§ 70. Agaricus (Trieholoma) Peckli, Howe, n. sp. — Pileus con-
vex or expanded, viscid when moist, the separable pellicle when
dry breaking up into small scales or areas, tawny red ; flesh
white ; lamelte narrow, close, sometimes branched, white; stem
equal or slightly thickened at base, squamulose, white at the top,
elsewhere colored like the pileus ; odor farinaceous. Gregarious,
2 — 4 in. high, pileus 2 — 3 in. broad, stem 4 — 6 lines in diameter.

Ground in woods, Sandlake, N. Y., August. Young specimens
sometimes have the top of the stem and the margin of the pileus
adorned with drops of moisture of a reddish color.

Yonkers, N. Y. E. C. Howe.

§ 71. Western Plants.— I give you herewith some notes made on
my trip from New York to Peoria and back via Mackinaw, De-
troit, and the Great Western Railway of Canada, Buffalo, etc.' — I