226 Rhodora | SEPTEMBER 
another Arabis was found strongly resembling the New England plant 
with strict inflorescence which has been known as Arabis confinis, but 
with the pods much broader than in New England specimens, This 
strict plant of Rivière du Loup had the basal leaves, like those of the 
New England plant which it resembled, glabrous or with some simple 
stiff hairs usually attached at the middle (malpighiaceous hairs) but 
rarely 3-forked. The two plants were so very different that the result 
of the first comparison of them with the current manuals and with 
extensive herbarium material was a complete surprise, for, according 
to these sources of information, both plants were Arabis confinis, 
Watson (4. brachycarpa, Britton). Further study showed that both 
Arabis confinis and A. brachycarpa have been the source of much 
confusion. : 
When, in 1887, Dr. Watson described Arabis confinis, he included 
at least two plants, and his description which follows gives little clue 
to the special form he intended as typical of his species: 
“ARABIS (TURRITIS) CONFINIS. Biennial, rarely somewhat glau- 
cous; stems erect, one or several, usually simple, 1 to 3 feet high: 
lower leaves oblanceolate, usually dentate, finely stellate-pubescent 
or sometimes glabrous, the cauline oblong to linear-lanceolate, auric- 
ulate: flowers white or pinkish: pods more or less spreading or sub- 
erect, a line broad or less, straight or slightly curved, usually more 
or less attenuate above and beaked: seeds small, narrowly oblong, 
winged.— A. laevigata, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. 1. 43. Zwrritis glabrg, 
and var. B, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 78 and 666. T. brachycarpa, Torr. 
& Gray, l.c. 79. TZ. stricta, Torr. Fl. N. Y. 1. 53, not Grah. ; Gray, 
Gen. Ill. 1. 144, t. 59. A. Drummondii, Gray, Manual, 69. From 
the lower St. Lawrence (Tadoussac, Pickering) along the Great Lakes 
to Lake Winnipeg (Bourgeau), and more rarely southward (Mt. 
Willard, axon; Dracut, Concord, and Brookline, Mass., Dame, 
Deane, Faxon; Thimble Islands, Conn., 4. Z. Winton; Cayuga 
Co., N. Y., Dudley; Elgin and Dixon, OL, Vasey). It includes all 
the ‘4. Drummondii’ of the Atlantic region.” ! 
As shown by the herbarium specimens as well as by studies of the 
plants in the field, the characters, “leaves.... finely stellate-pubes-. 
cent” and “pods more or less spreading,” belong to one plant; while 
the characters, “leaves .... sometimes glabrous " and “ pods. .. . sub- 
erect,” are exhibited by a plant of quite different habit, habitat, and 
geographic range. Of the specimens cited by Dr. Watson, those 
from Tadousac, Lake Winnipeg, and Dixon, Illinois, belong to the 
! Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xxii. (1887) 466. 
