IRbofcora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 18. January, 1916. No. 205. 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE GRAY HERBARIUM OF HARVARD 

 UNIVERSITY.— NEW SERIES, NO. XLVI. 



THE GENUS PUCCINELLIA IN EASTERN NORTH 

 AMERICA. 



M. L. Fernald and C. A. Weatherby. 



(Plates 114-117.) 



The essentially halophytic genus Puccinellia of Parlatore l has 

 always been one of the least understood and, even to agrostologists, 

 one of the most perplexing groups of grasses. The species superficially 

 so closely simulate one another that by many experienced botanists 

 they are merged; while the generic status of the plants is often 

 questioned. Thus by some European botanists (for instance, Druce 

 and Ostenfeld) the plants are included under Glyceria, by others (as 

 Ascherson & Graebner) treated as a section of Feduca, while Britten 

 & Rendle include them in Sclerochloa. In some characters species of 

 Puccinellia certainly approach all three of these genera, yet as a whole 

 the plants seem to constitute a good genus for which Puccinellia is the 

 earliest unequivocal name. 



In Europe, however, the name Puccinellia is not generally in use; 

 but those who treat the group as a genus (for instance, Briquet, 

 Richter or Rouy) call it Atropis. The status of Atropis as a generic 

 name is, nevertheless, open to serious doubt. It is commonly cited 

 as dating from Trinius in Ruprecht's Florcs Samojcdorum Cisuralen- 

 sium? and Grisebach in Ledebour's Flora Rossica, but in the enumera- 



i Pari. Fl. Ital. i. 366 (1848). 



2 Rupr. Beitr. zur Pflanzenk. des Russischen Reichos, ii. 61, 64 (1845). 



