1918] Fernald,— Epilobiums Sect. Lysimachion 33 
more satisfactory than to attempt to keep them apart as species on 
inconstant characters. 
The plant which has passed as E. adenocaulon is extremely variable 
and the two varieties proposed by Prof. Trelease are fairly pronounced. 
The most extreme of these is his var. perplexans, in which the leaves 
are narrowed gradually to slender petioles. This plant often looks 
like a thoroughly distinct species but it has no constant characters 
by which it can be clearly separated. It is found locally from New- 
foundland across the continent to Washington and southward across 
New England and New York, and in the Rocky Mountains to Colo- 
rado. The other variety, var. occidentale, is in some ways less pro- 
nounced but in its narrow lanceolate stem-leaves is fairly recogniz- 
able as distinct from true E. adenocaulon, in which the median leaves 
are from narrowly ovate to ovate-lanceolate. This variety is not 
confined to western America, however, but extends eastward to 
Ontario and northern New York and is also found, like many other 
northwestern plants, about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in northern 
New England and in Newfoundland. Its lanceolate leaves somewhat 
suggest those of E. coloratum, but the coma of the fruit is quite white 
instead of cinnamon-colored as in the latter species, and it has the 
characteristic seed of E. glandulosum. Flowering material has been 
much confused with E. coloratum, as indicated by the labels; but the 
fully grown bud of E. coloratum has uncinate short tips (the appen- 
dages of the calyx-lobes), while the buds and calyx-lobes of E. glandu- 
losum are blunt. 
Two other extreme variations of Epilobium glandulosum occur in 
Labrador, Newfoundland and eastern Quebec. The more widely 
spread of these is a plant of southern Labrador, Newfoundland and 
the Gaspé Peninsula with the tall habit, loose inflorescences and 
reduced bracteal leaves of E. adenocaulon but with the middle cauline 
leaves cordate-attenuate, the base being conspicuously cordate. This 
may prove to be E. boreale Haussk., described from plants raised at 
Berlin from Alaskan seeds, a species not well understood by American 
botanists. The illustration published by Léveillé! of the summit of 
a specimen at Berlin strongly suggests the summit of the Labrador, 
Newfoundland and Gaspé plant; but in his original description Hauss- 
knecht clearly described the median cauline leaves as being “basi 
1 Léveillé, Icon. Gen. Epil. pl. 162 (1910). 
