x 
i. 
1911] Fernald,— Variations of Lathyrus palustris 49 
Chamisso, upon which Ledebour based his var. pilosus, shows that he 
had, not the plant with broad leaflets which has been generally identi- 
fied with var. pilosus, but the pubescent extreme of var. linearifolius. 
Chamisso's description reads: 
“LATHYRUS PILOSUS n. sp. Proximus palustri, gracilior tenuiorque, 
et omnium partium, praeter corollas glabras et forse legumen deficiens, 
pilositate diversus.— Pilosus, caule gracili tetragono bialato ad 
nodos haud flexuoso, foliis 2-4-jugis, foliolis linearibus," etc.’ 
Chamisso's plant was from "portum Petro-Pauli Kamtschatcae,” 
and it is interesting to find that material from Petropaulovskii, 
Kamchatka, and from Amur, Manchuria and Japan differs consis- 
tently from the European var. linearifolius in being pubescent, and 
that this pubescent Kamchatkan plant extends across to Alaska 
and down the Pacific coast at least to Oregon. On the Atlantic 
coast it is the common slender plant of meadows and damp or even 
dry situations (often brackish) from Labrador to Connecticut. 
The var. linearifolius as treated in the 7th edition of Gray’s Manual 
contained not only the slender pubescent plant with linear or lanceo- 
late leaves (the plant just shown to be the true var. pilosus) but also 
a glabrous plant which, upon further comparison, the writer is unable 
to distinguish from the true glabrous var. linearifolius of Seringe. 
As represented in the Gray Herbarium, the glabrous var. linearifolius 
seems to be confined in America to the St. Lawrence Basin and adjacent 
territory, occurring from Minnesota and western Ontario to the vicinity 
of Quebec. 
The large plant, which in the Manual is called var. pilosus and which 
has been passing both in Asia and Europe under that name, stands 
to typical L. palustris in the same relation as does true var. pilosus 
to var. linearifolius. The large pubescent plant is as tall and coarse 
as true L. palustris, has similar foliage and large flowers and differs 
from it only in the pubescent stems, leaves, calyx, and pods. This 
was the L. palustris y of Torrey & Gray, recently redescribed as L. 
myrtifolius macranthus White, from Lubec, Maine. In Mr. White’s 
characterization emphasis is put upon the wingless stem, but this 
character is not a constant one, as shown by other pubescent plants 
with broad leaflets and large flowers from the coast of Maine and the 
Maritime Provinces. This large plant, Mr. White’s L. myrtifolius 
1 Cham. Linnaea, vi. 548 (1831). 
