1920] Wiegand,— A new Species of Spergularia 15 
A NEW SPECIES OF SPERGULARIA. 
K. M. WIEGAND. 
IN the central portion of New York State, on the plain lying be- 
tween Lake Ontario and the plateau region farther south, are found 
numerous salt springs which render the soil in the vicinity decidedly 
brackish. In a lesser degree the influence of the salt extends through 
the swamps and waters of that whole.region. To this factor is 
largely due the very interesting assembly of coastal plants found 
in Central New York. Some are distinctly maritime, as Ruppia 
maritima, Najas marina, Chenopodium rubrum, Leptochloa fascicularis 
and Ranunculus Cymbalaria, while others are coastal in nature but 
less distinctly maritime, as Hibiscus Moscheutos, Phragmites com- 
munis, Listera australis, Potamogeton filiformis and Carex alata. In 
desiccated places on the salt flats and bordering the salty pools Sper- 
gularias occur often in considerable abundance. Plants of this genus 
are found also around the salt works at Syracuse, N. Y., about thirty 
miles distant toward the east. In a paper on the Spergularias of 
northeastern North America, Fernald and Wiegand (Rnopona xii. 
157, 1910) noted that the species at Syracuse was S. marginata (DC.) 
Kit. not known elsewhere from North America. Since that time 
the writer has collected both S. marginata and S. salina at Syracuse. 
He was therefore greatly surprised to find that the Spergularia at 
the stations farther west was not the same. A study of the material 
in the Gray Herbarium has shown that these plants are unlike any 
species in that collection from America, and a diligent search failed 
to show any similar foreign species. It is possible that they repre- 
sent a local endemic species in this region, though this is not usual 
in a glaciated country like New York State. It has seemed desirable 
to call the attention of botanists to this plant in the hope that it 
may be found elsewhere. The species may be described as follows: 
S. alata sp. nov. magnitudine habituque S. letospermae (Kindb.) 
Schmidt et S. salinae J. & C. Presl simillima, verisimiliter annua 
vel biennis glabra vel in pedunculis et rarissime etiam in internodiis 
superioribus sparse glandulari-pubescens; stipulis late deltoideo- 
ovatis acutis; bracteis foliaceis; petalis quam sepala brevioribus 
roseis; staminibus 4-6; sepalis ovatis vel oblongo-ovatis plerumque 
obtusis quam capsula magna (5-7 mm. longa) dimidio vel saltim 
