1907] Fernald,— Genus Suaeda in Northeastern America 141 
and very slender plant (no. 2) with longer semicylindrie very glaucous 
foliage was in flower and with occasional mature seeds. A third but 
scarce plant (no. 3), then beginning to fruit, had much coarser purple- 
tinged ascending and slightly branching stems, and the leaves only 
slightly glaucous. ‘Two other species not then in flower were common 
— one an erect or ascending profusely branched green plant (no. 4) 
a foot or two high, the elongate-linear leaves not glaucous; the other 
a depressed plant (no. 5), at that time showing no trace of flowering, 
generally with the coarse stems and slender leaves purplish. Late 
in the following September additional collections and field notes were 
made about Wells Beach by Miss Kate Furbish. The two slender 
depressed plants (nos. 1 & 2) which had been in fruit nearly two 
months earlier were, at the time of these later observations, over-ripe 
or quite shrivelled, and the tall erect very branching plant (no. 4) 
was in mature condition, but the coarse decumbent plant (no. 5) 
with its green or generally claret-colored stems and leaves was barely 
in fruit. Its habit, however, and the very dense elongate-spicate 
inflorescences distinguished it superficially from the other plants 
near which it grew. An exhaustive study of the Suaedas of eastern 
Massachusetts recently made by Mr. Wm. P. Rich has shown that 
two forms — the tall late-fruiting species (no. 4) and the ascending 
plant (no. 3) noted as scarce on Wells Beach — are generally dis- 
tributed along the Massachusetts coast, while a third plant, the slender 
depressed very glaucous form (no. 2) occurs on the North Shore. 
A detailed examination of these five plants shows that besides their 
marked habital characters and their different fruiting seasons, at least 
four of them possess good differential characters in their calyces and 
seeds, These five New England plants divide themselves naturally 
into two groups — the first, with the sepals thickened and strongly 
carinate upon the back, including the two late-flowering plants (nos. 
4 & 5); the second group, with the sepals thinner and rounded or 
very slightly carinate upon the back, including the three plants (nos. 
1, 2, and 3) found fruiting in late July. The former group includes 
the plants now generally passing as Suaeda linearis (Ell) Moq. 
(Dondia Americana Britton in part); and the three plants with the 
sepals more rounded on the back are included under Suaeda mari- 
tima (L.) Dum. (Dondia maritima Druce). 
In order to make a satisfactory disposition of these forms it is 
necessary first to gain a clear conception of the European Suaeda 
