1915] Fernald,— Circaea latifolia and Asiatic C. quadrisuleata 223 
tions The American plant which passes as C. lutetiana has, on the 
other hand, the stems glabrous below the inflorescence or at most 
remotely pubescent; the stolons filiform; the leaves oblong-ovate; 
the petals broadly. obovate, as long as or longer than broad and 
wedge-shaped at base; and the mature fruit with 3-5 corrugations 
on each face and larger than in the European plant. Differing in all 
these characters and geographically quite isolated, it is apparent that 
the American plant should not be confused with C. lutetiana. 
That the two were not identical was apparently recognized by the 
older botanists, for as early as 1700 Tournefort had a “ Circaea Cana- 
densis, latifolia, flore albo," + which formed the basis of the Linnean 
C. lutetiana, B. canadensis? This plant referred by Linnaeus, as a 
variety, to C. lutetiana was not further defined by him and, in view 
of the comparatively narrow leaf of the American plant, the Tourne- 
fortian description, “latifolia,” copied by Linnaeus, forms an unfortu- 
nate basis for separation. Yet our American plant was long known 
as var. canadensis,— by Michaux, Pursh, Nuttall, Torrey and others. 
Ever. as early as 1756, however, John Hill had taken up the Tourne- 
fortian Circaea canadensis, latifolia, flore albo of North America as 
C. la'ifolia? which he described at length, with the leaves “broad and 
oblong,” as opposed to “oval” in his description of C. lutetiana and 
“broad and short" in his C. minima (C. alpina), and the “seed- 
vessel... .large” as contrasted with * seed-vessels. . . . small" in C. lute- 
tiana. By these two essential characters, oblong leaves and larger 
fruits, Hill was clearly describing the American representative of 
C. lutetiana, as he was when he emphasized the tall plant by stating 
that “The stalk is round, upright, firm, hairy, and two feet high," 
althcugh the character "hairy" appears only at the summit of the 
stem, along the axis of the inflorescence. To be sure, the name C. 
latifclia found no recognition in Index Kewensis; but there is hardly 
a question that our American representative of C. lutetiana should be 
called C. latifolia Hill. 
In studying the Old World species of Circaea a characteristic plant 
of eastern Asia,—Manchuria, Amur, and Japan — has been found 
whica, in aspect as well as in all the technical characters of glabrous 
stem, outline of leaf, shape of petal and corrugation of fruit, exactly 
1 Tourn. Inst. i. 301 (1700). 
2 L. Sp. Pl. i. 9 (1753). 
3 Hill, Brit. Herb. 138 (1756). 
