160 Rhodora [AuGusT 
source of confusion or error" and is now so treated by many European 
authors. Rouy & Foucaud! (see quotation above), and Giirke ? 
take up for our plant the name Spergularia marginata, (DC.) Kittel, 
based upon Arenaria marginata DC.; Hiern calls it Alsine marina 
Wahlenb. and applies the name Alsine media Crantz to Spergularia 
salina J. & C. Presl, although it appears from Hiern’s note that 
Crantz’s species (assuming that it has been positively identified) was 
also a mixture of a Spergularia and a Spergula. Britten & Rendle ? 
call it Alsine marginata Reichenb. (treating S. salina J. & C. Presl as 
Alsine media Crantz); but, in view of the fact that Spergularia was 
included in the list of nomina conservanda adopted at Vienna, “a list 
of names which must be retained in all cases" (Art. 20), we cannot 
agree with those who throw aside the generic name Spergularia for 
Alsine (see Journ. Bot. XLV. 436), a name which itself has been 
subject to the most diverse interpretation. Druce * treats the perennial 
Spergularia marginata (DC.) Kittel as S. media (Pers.) Presl (= Are- 
naria media L. in part), and maintains of Alsine media Crantz the 
name Spergularia salina J. & C. Presl. In view of such diversity of 
interpretation among those who are better situated than the writers to 
determine the Linnaean type, there seems no clear course open at 
present but to call the perennial plant with long pedicels and large 
seeds by the name which leaves no doubt in the mind as to'the plant 
intended, and in so doing to follow a practice which has many ad- 
herents in Europe. The first unincumbered name for this plant seems 
to have been Arenaria marginata DC., and as a Spergularia the plant 
should be known as S. marginata (DC.) Kittel. 
We are inclined to agree with most European authors that the char- 
acter of pubescence in these saline species is not of much diagnostic 
value. Spergularia marginata, in practically all specimens examined, 
is glandular-pubescent at least above, and S. canadensis is almost 
as regularly entirely glabrous. In each of the other two species, S. 
salina and S. leiosperma, there is a hairy and a smooth form. 
The leading characters and distribution of the fleshy Spergularias 
in northeastern North America may be summarized as follows: 
Mature capsules large (6.5-9 mm. long), about twice the length of the calyx: 
pedicels at maturity about twice as long as the eapsule: seeds, excluding the 
! Rouy et Foucaud, Fl. de France, iii. 302 (1896). 
2 Gürke, 1. c. 197. 
3 Britten & Rendle, List of British Seed-Plants and Ferns, 7 (1907). 
* Druce, l. c. 
