LECILEA JUNIPERINA ri. sp.
Tufted from a descending and branched woody root, 2-5 dm. high. Stems erect, often from an outcurved or ascending base, mostly purplish and naked below the middle at flowering-time, branched above the middle to form a dense narrow panicle ; branches short, numerous, closely ascending, mostly 2-5 cm. long (1-9 cm.); pubescence consisting of fine white hairs, at first densely appressed, becoming loosely substrigose-hoary or even subtomentose-canescent ; leaves numerous, crowded, ascending or appressed, thickish, slightly revolute in drying, only the mid vein evident, glabrous above, below with the midrib finely strigose and with some loose marginal hairs, the petioles 1-2.5 min. long, appressed white-pubescent on the under side ; stem leaves linear to oblong-linear and oblanceolate, mostly tapering towards the base and more abruptly narrowed at the apex, acute or subacute, 1-2.2 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, those of the branches much smaller, narrowly linear, acute; inflorescence forming a dense and leafy narrow panicle, 10-20 cm. long (in reduced plants much smaller and more or less terminal), the numerous short-pedicelled flowers crowded in short axillary racemes and clustered at the ends of the branches; fruiting calyx ovoid-ellipsoid, 1.5-2 mm. long ; pedicels 1-3 mm. long, often very short in the clustered terminal flowers ; inner sepals elliptic, subacute, nerveless or faintly 3-nerved, reddish-purple, at least on the margins, the shorter outer sepals usually bright green in marked contrast ; capsule ovoid-subglobose, 1.5-12 mm. long ; petals reddish-purple, oblong-linear, with only a mid-vein, about 2 mm. long by i min. wide ; leaves of basal shoots narrowly elliptic, acute at each end, somewhat pilose-hairy on the midrib and margins or nearly glabrate. The plant blooms in August. The basal shoots do not begin to develop until September.
In reduced states the plant is only 1-3 dm. high and linear in general outline, the more persistent leaves appressed, the shortened panicle more or less terminal and sometimes only I cm. wide.
A form which grows in the shade of copses or park-like woods is more slender and less leafy than the typical plant of neighbor ing open ground, the leaves looser and often spreading, the more open panicle much less floriferous and more racemose-paniculate.
Specimens have been examined from various localities along and near the Maine coast from York Harbor to Mt. Desert.
Lechea intermedia Leggett differs from L. juniperina in less tufted habit and often larger size, becoming 7 dm. tall. The pu bescence is somewhat coarser and more strigose, and composed of shorter, less whitened hairs, never becoming tomentose or canes cent. The stem is usually greener, with the more persistent leaves less crowded and appressed and with more verticillate tendency. The leaves are often larger and longer, becoming 2.8 cm. long and 5 mm. wide, and are rarely if ever distinctly oblanceolate. The panicle is more or less loose and open with fewer and larger, more globose, longer-pedicelled flowers, which are mostly loosely race mose and never glomerate-clustered. The broader usually orbicu lar sepals are green or only with the slightest purplish tinge and strongly nerved, the nerves often five in number and branched ; the petals are larger and broader and mostly 3-nerved, the stigmas twice as large, the outer sepals commonly shorter and closer. The leaves of the basal shoots are often larger and relatively narrower and usually more hairy.
Lechea stricta Leggett, as compared with L. juniperina, is a paler, more silky-canescent plant, especially when young, the nar rower acute leaves more pubescent, even pubescent over the lower surface and sparsely hairy above, the branches longer and massed above to form a broader panicle, the rather smaller and more glo bose longer-pedicelled flowers not at all glomerate, hut distinctly racemose-paniculate and showing little or no purple.
L. juniperina appears to occupy a somewhat intermediate posi tion between L. intennedia and L. man'tima Leggett, although it need never be confused with the latter. L. man' tima is, in fact, very distinct from all our species and is strongly characterized by its rigidly bushy-branched habit, dense tomentose-canescence and the oblong densely-pubescent leaves of the basal shoots.