1912] Owen,— Tillaea in Nantucket 201 
TILLAEA IN NANTUCKET. 
Maria L. OwEN. 
In 1841, William Oakes reported Tillaea simplex Nutt. amongst 
other plants found in 1829 in Nantucket. (Hovey's Magazine of 
Horticulture and Botany, Vol. VII. p. 182.) This name now gives 
place to the earlier T. aquatica L., while at least a part of the speci- 
mens of Tillaea from Nantucket show the stalked flowers and fruit 
as in T. Vaillantii Willd. We cannot doubt that Mr. Oakes collected 
a Tillaea in 1829 and that no more of it was found till 1894. It is 
the cireumstances of this late find which I wish to record and its 
second disappearance from that year up to the present time. Its 
correct name, whether T. aquatica L., T. Vaillantii Willd., or even 
some different one cannot be settled until we catch the elusive little 
plant again. Mr. Oakes stated that he collected it “on the dried 
borders of small ponds" on the island, and in my collecting days I 
used to hope to come across it, and I have mentioned it to botanists 
visiting Nantucket, as something to look for. 
From about 1890 on, Mrs. Mabel P. Robinson with her family spent 
several consecutive summers on the island; she was a diligent collector 
and student of its flora, and I made my usual recommendation to her. 
This time not in vain! 
I was living in Springfield then, and with the specimen which Mrs. 
Robinson sent me there, she wrote that she had come home from one 
of her long walks with her box full of plants, and had analyzed most 
of them and decided on their names when she took up this little thing, 
in poor condition for it was then a day or two old. It was, indeed, so 
far gone that after some study she gave it up and was just going to 
throw it away, when what I had told her of Tillaea flashed into her 
mind. Shetook up the specimen again and was quickly convinced that 
the long-sought rarity was hers — Tillaea had come out of its seclu- 
sion of sixty-five years! 
This was in August, 1894. In 1896, the first time after that that 
we were on the island together I invited Mrs. Robinson to drive out to 
Hummock Pond with me and show me the Tillaea locality. We went 
along the east shore and stopped near the southern limit of the pines; 
there Mrs. Robinson left me to hunt up the spot, but soon came back 
