.90 Rhodora [May 
Although Professor Gray refers to the seeds of the gentian as “innu- 
merable," I once counted those in one capsule and found 290. This 
would make 51,000 for the largest plant I have mentioned. It is a 
question, however, what becomes of them all. Certainly very few 
grow. — H. S. Crank, Hartford, Conn. 
AN APETALOUS FORM OF ARENARIA GROENLANDICA. — Last summer 
Mr. E. L. Rand sent the writer an apetalous specimen of Arenaria 
groentandica, collected near Seal Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Me., 
July 10, 1898. The plant seems in all regards normal except in the 
absence of petals. The tendency of this species to produce smaller 
and smaller flowers as the season advances has already been noted.' 
But in a considerable suite of specimens of this species examined by 
the writer in the revision of Arenaria for the Synoptical Flora, only two 
individuals were found in which the petals were shorter than the sepals ; 
and in these, collected by Mr. M. L. Fernald, on Mount Saddleback, 
Me., altitude 1,350 m., August 17, 1894, the anthers were purple, and 
infested by Ustilago antherarum, to which some dwarfing of the other 
floral organs may well have been due. In Mr. Rand's plant, however, 
the anthers, as well as the sepals and pistils, have their usual normal 
appearance, while the petals are not merely reduced but completely 
wanting, leaving the cup-shaped expansion of the disk somewhat more 
conspicuous than usual. 
Apetalous flowers in this species do not appear to have been men- 
tioned in literature, even in Professor Warming's excellent and detailed 
paper upon the different forms of flowers in Caryophyllacee.? It re- 
mains for future observation to determine whether this apetalous con- 
dition of our well-known mountain Arenaria is a seasonal development 
or state, or whether the trait is perpetuated by heredity, and may have 
varietal significance. — B. L. RoniNsoN, Gray Herbarium. 
A NEW STATION FOR POTENTILLA TRIDENTATA.— While on a botanizing 
trip to Mount Wachusett last September, I found a few specimens of 
Potentilla tridentata, Ait., on the summit óf Little Wachusett Moun- 
tain, at an altitude of only 1,560 feet above sea-level. This is perhaps 
the lowest altitude at which this plant occurs in Worcester County. It 
I Proc. Am. Acad., xxix, 329. 
Om Caryophyllaceernes Blomster. Copenhagen, 1890. 
