110 Rhodora [JUNE 
northern specimens it is frequent to find sepals 5 mm. in length (Ryd- 
berg restricts the sepals of the northern plant to a length of 2-3 mm.) 
or the leaves well over 1 cm. broad (for example Gleason and Shobe, 
no. 184 from Illinois, with leaves 12 mm. broad). It does not seem 
very probable that there are two American species; at any rate, most 
of the characters stated by Rydberg are thoroughly inconstant and it 
is very certain, if Michaux’s V. americana is typified by his plant from 
the Mississippi River, that the type did not come from the range 
“ Florida to Mississippi” assigned to V. americana by Rydberg. The 
Mississippi River known to Michaux was entirely in western Illinois, 
Michaux making his trip to the Mississippi in 1795-96 and exploring 
along the Mississippi in Illinois southward as far as the mouth of the 
Ohio, thence along the Ohio and tributary rivers eastward. Any 
material of V. americana which he collected in the Mississippi River 
must, then, have come from Illinois, and V. americana, if it rests alone 
upon the Mississippi River material, is clearly the common species 
of the North and not a different plant which may or may not exist in 
the Gulf States. From what has been stated, it is clear that our 
American V. americana differs very definitely from the southern 
European species, V. spiralis, in its staminate inflorescences and that 
treated as a species it is V. americana Michaux, or as a variety it 
would be V. spiralis, var. americana (Michx.) Torr. 
Gray HERBARIUM. 
JOssELYN BoranicaL Society oF Marne.—The Twenty-fourth 
Annual Field Meeting will be held at Phillips, July 2, 1918, with 
headquarters at the Willows Hotel. Further notice will be sent to 
members, and to others interested, on request, at least two weeks 
previous to the meeting — Miss ApALINE WILLIS, Secretary, Naples, 
Maine. 
