Volume 5 – Issue 2 (Feb 1940)

One of the oddest and most fascinating little genera of our native flora is Asarum, a very characteristic type of the Appalachian forests; yet I am not aware that it has ever been definitely settled in what way it is pollinated: whether self-pollinated, cross-pollinated by insects, or by some other agency. With its curious jug-shaped flowers consisting in a fleshy, livid-colored, lurid, greenish, or purple-suffused calyx with somewhat petal-like lobes, it is one of the most singular of our early spring flowers. A further peculiarity is the way the flowers often bloom secretively under dead forest litter or even half- buried, up to their necks, in the earth. The aromatic rootstocks, and the striking leaves, reniform, hastate, halberd-shaped, evergreen or annual, all contribute to make these plants as gamey to find as truffles, as curious as aroids.

During the summer term of 1939 the writer attempted the task of identifying the indetermined specimens of the genus Carex on file in the herbarium of West Virginia ‘University. Among the considerable number of specimens examined and determined were found two species which had not been previously reported for West Virginia.

Numerous additions to “The Living Flora of West Virginia”, published by Millspaugh in 1913, have been reported by various workers in recent years. The present paper is designed to include a number of species of seed plants hitherto unreported and which have been noted within the State in the past few years. Substantiating specimens have been deposited in the Herbarium of West Virginia University. A catalogue of all vascular plants known to occur wild in West Virginia is now in preparation.

An intensive study of the plant life of Bull Run Mountain in Virginia for the past seven years would indicate that no native species of Sedum occurs in this area.

In The Journal of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Club (Castanea) Vol. 1, No. 7, Nov. 1936, A. B. Brooks discusses the discovery of llex longipes Chapman along the Cranberry River, in Nicholas County, W. Va. In his discussion of this southern holly Mr. Brooks quotes from a letter written on September 20, 1915, by Dr. Charles S. Sargent, in which Dr. Sargent tells of finding a holly which he identified as Ilex longipes along Shavers Fork of Cheat River, near Cheat Bridge, Randolph County, W. Va.