IRbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 20. April, 1918. No. 232. 
THE NORTH AMERICAN LITTORELLA. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
Onr of the rarest plants of the North American flora is the peculiar 
little member of the Plantaginaceae which is called in our floras 
Littorella uniflora (L.) Asch. The plant is known from only a few 
sandy or muddy shores from Newfoundland to Minnesota and, ever 
since its original discovery on this continent in 1868, it seems to have 
been treated without question as identical with the European species, 
L. uniflora. This treatment, originating when the plant was very 
little known in America and material inadequate, can no longer be 
maintained, since we now have sufficient material of the North Ameri- 
can plant to show that it is constant in its characters and that in 
nearly every feature it is distinct from the European L. uniflora. 
The latter plant, which apparently is less rare in Europe than is its 
representative in America, has a stoutish rootstock, shown in Flora 
Danica or in the English Botany as about 0.5 cm. in diameter; the 
American plant having the rootstock filiform. The European plant 
has many of the roots thickened and cord-like, becoming almost 
fusiform; the American has them all filiform. In the European 
species the leaves are subterete or semi-cylindric and 0.3-1.5 dm. long, 
with a conspicuously dilated and sheathing scarious stipular base. 
The American plant, on the other hand, has the leaves flattish, 1.5- 
5 em. long, with the scarious base very narrow. In the European 
species the peduncles of the staminate flowers are 1-6 cm. long, the 
calyces 4-7 mm. long, with lanceolate segments; and the filaments 
are 2—4 cm. long, the anthers 2.5-3 mm. long. In the American plant 
the peduncles of the staminate flowers are only 0.7-2 cm. long; the 
