GV. rS 
iiic s io vie A 
1907] Fernald,— Genus Suaeda in Northeastern America 143 
from that of the European Chenopodium maritimum. Moquin in his 
monograph of the Chenopodiaceae transferred the tall plant to Suaeda, 
as S. linearis, following very closely Elliott's description. In DeCan- 
dolle's Prodromus, however, he states that the seeds are a line long,— 
the size of those in Walter's plant and in the common S. maritima, 
but much larger than in the common southern plant which closely 
matches Elliotts and Moquin's original descriptions. This large- 
seeded plant, with the leaves of the flowering branches usually elon- 
gated and with thin rounded sepals was accepted by Dr. Watson in 
his early studies of the group as true Suaeda linearis Moq. (Salsola 
linearis Ell), and the small-seeded plant with, carinate sepals, de- 
scribed by Elliott was treated as a variety of the species, var. ramosa, 
though later, in the 6th edition of Gray's Manual, he considered 
the common erect plant with small seed true S. linearis. 
Under his Suaeda linearis, var. ramosa, Dr. Watson apparently 
without hesitation included as a synonym Salsola salsa Michaux, 
from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, a plant which had been included 
with hesitation by Moquin and others under Suaeda linearis. From 
the original Michaux material it is impossible to determine with 
certainty the exact identity of that plant; but that it is the same as 
the erect branching small-seeded Suaeda linearis (var. ramosa Wats.) 
of the southern coast is open to serious doubt. So far as exploration 
on the Maine coast and the lower St. Lawrence has shown, the tall 
small-seeded S. linearis rarely occurs east of the mouth of the Kennebec, 
nor has it been collected in the maritime provinces of Canada. In 
fact, north of Cape Anne the three species (excepting the local S. 
linearis of southern Maine) which we know are low plants of procum- 
bent or at least wide-spreading or loosely branching habit. Michaux 
supposed the lower St. Lawrence plant to be the European Salsola 
salsa, and his primary descripion might well be that of the Old World 
plant; but in the accompanying observation he states that his Amer- 
ican specimen differs from the European in its more slender sub- 
decumbent habit and more crowded flowers. The Michaux plant 
was soon distinguished by Persoon from the erect Salsola salsa as a 
variety, “p? americana, humilior, subdecumbens, flor. confertioribus.’”” 
1' A. SALSOLA que maritima circa Hdvre de Grace et Dieppe incolit, in eo tantum 
differt, quod humilior sit et subdecumbens, floribus confertioribus."— Michx. Fl. i. 174 
(1803). 
? Pers, Syn. i. 296 (1805). 
