218 Rhodora [DECEMBER 
LOBELIA CARDINALIS L., f. alba (A. Eaton), n. comb. L. cardinalis 
L., var. alba A. Eaton, Man. Bot. N. Am., ed. 7, 375 (1836). L. 
cardinalis L., 8 alba Wood, Class-Book of Bot. ii. 227 (1845). L. 
cardinalis L., y candida Wood, Am. Potanist and Florist 195 (1870). 
Gray HERBARIUM. z 
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FURTHER NOTES ON PHILOTRIA. 
R. W. WOODWARD. 
IN a recent issue (RHODORA 21:114), the writer reported what ap- 
peared to be Philotria angustifolia growing in brackish water at Old 
Lyme, Connecticut. The station was revisited in August, 1919, and 
both flowers and fruit were examined while fresh, so that they can be 
described in more detail than was possible from dry specimens. 
Experience proves these parts of Elodeas to be unsatisfactory in the 
dry state, even when great care is used in preparing them. 
At this station the plant occurs as a narrow fringe at the extreme 
edge of low water, and cannot well be collected except for a short time 
at the turn of the tide. Hundreds of staminate flowers were seen 
floating on the slowly moving water as it began to return. Many of 
these were surrounded by pollen grains, moving along with them, 
while others that had not yet discharged their pollen, emitted a 
copious pollen shower at the slightest jar. In these expanded flowers, 
the three purplish, or purple-flecked, somewhat ventricose, obovate 
sepals, which are barely united at base, are so strongly reflexed that 
they meet beneath and resemble a thin, wide peduncle. The narrower 
petals are similarly reflexed. Consequently the whorls of nearly 
sessile anthers are raised in effect above the perianth, and the latter 
cannot impede the flight of the pollen when it is ejected. Possibly 
also the reflexed perianth, traveling in the water, steadies the rest of 
the flower and keeps it upright above the surface and in the best 
position to scatter its pollen. The anther cells are 0.8-1.1 mm. long 
and very plump, and the firm pollen grains are noticeably large. As 
the perianth, if spread out flat, could hardly exceed 3 mm. in breadth, 
it appears that the anthers are large for the size of the flower, and the 
amount of pollen correspondingly great. In fact, when floating on 
the water, the whorls of anthers are the conspicuous part of the flower. 
