Volume 12 – Issue 2 (Jun 1947)

In late May 1946 I spent several days in the high, cool area around Davis, Tucker Co,, West Va., collecting and studying the plant life of this interesting region. Under date of May 31 and under my field collection number 11894 a collection of Stellaria was made, which tentatively was pronounced S. graminea. A study of Ml. L. Fernald’s treatment “The American Variations of Stellaria Borealis,” Rhodora 16: 144-151, 1914, keyed this out, at once as his S. borealis Bigel. var. isophylla Fern. Comparison with eastern material in the National Herbarium from New England and other northern points definitely established the borealis kinship.

In this paper are notes, taxonomic or distributional on Xerophyllum, Impatiens, Oenothera, Melampyrum, Penstemon, Chelone, Veronica, and Taraxacum. They are largely based on collections made during the spring and summer of 1945 in Shenandoah National Park, in the Blue Ridge of Virginia. They may be considered preliminary to a second supplement to the checklist of plants of the park by Fosberg and Walker (Castanea 6: 89-1346, 1941). Nomenclatural combinations are proposed in Impatiens and Chelone. Specimens cited will be deposited in the U.S. National Arboretum (USNA) and the U.S. National Herbarium (US).

Asplenium Pinnatifidum Nutt. It has never been mv good fortune to find this little fern in a place of easy access. It appears to always choose rocky cliffs which are of difficult terrain for the hiker. It was found on a rock ledge near the base of Eagle Mt., Frederick County, Maryland on Aug. 16, 1936. It was also found near Crows, Alleghany County, Virginia June 1, 1940.

Gentiana sponaria var. allegheniensis var. nov. Caulis 3-6 dim. longis, lineis minutissime ciliato-scabriuseulus ornato. Folia intermedia et superiora oblonga vel oblongo-lanceolata. Corolla lobis demum ereetis 3-4 mm. longis; plieis quam lobos parce brevioribus vel equilongis, bifidis, plis minusve laciniatis. Stems 3-6 dm. long, minutely ciliate-scabridulous in lines. The middle and upper leaves oblong to oblong-lanceolate. Corolla lobes at length erect, obtuse, 3-4 mm. long; the plaits notched at the apex, more or less laciniate, and about the same length or but very slightly shorter than the lobes.

Braun’s Catalog, of Spermatophytes of Kentucky (1943) is by far the most complete and informative treatment of Kentucky Flora to date. In addition to its listing of 1636 native and 188 introduced species, profuse habitat notes and distribution by counties are given. In 19-42 McFarland published an unannotated list of Kentucky species including 63 Pteridophyta and 1639 seed plants. The value of such bare lists is competently discussed by Peattie (1946) in a recent issue of Castanea.

A. survey was started in the autum of 1944 to ascertain the relation between annual growth, as determined by ring width, and periodic rainfall in two localities in Kentucky-one near Berea and the other near Burnside. It is hoped that this material will serve as the basis for further work in tree-ring study in this particular part of the country. A.s far a.s the writer is aware, no previous work of this nature has been carried on within the state. Other work has been done however, in regions near here at which places soil water was a limiting factor in growth. It is often the case that rainfall is not enough for a maximum growth of forest vegetation in this section of the country, but there are times in which the precipitation is more than sufficient for the best growth of these trees and there are instances, no doubt. in

The following notes, based largely upon. a comparative study of specimens in the herbarium of West Virginia University, represent an attempt to clarify the status of the species of Rubiaceae occurring within the boundaries of the State, as indicated by the material so far available. Obviously, unlimited work remains to be done. It can be hoped, merely, that the local field student will find his identifications simplified, and will have a source of up-to-date information to facilitate his addition of distribution data and of Possible species new to the State list.