1921] Fassett, — An estuarian Variety of Scirpus Smithii 41 



Veronica reniformis Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 1 : 10. 1814. " Collected 

 by Messrs. Lewis and Clark in boggy soil, on the banks of the Miss- 

 ouri . . . . v. s. in Herb. Lewis." Type was apparently a 

 plant collected on Hungry Creek, in what is now Montana, June 26, 

 1806, and an isotype of this in the Herbarium of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia was determined by Robinson and 

 Greenman [in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1898: 39. 1898] as 

 Synthyris reniformis major Hook. Pursh's description is inaccurate, 

 but I think must certainly apply to this collection which is the 

 species, S. major (Hook.) Heller. 



Veronica rotundifolia Ruiz & Pa von, Fl. Peruv. et Chil. 1 : 6. 1798. 

 "Habitat copiose in Peruviae uliginosis ad Pillao vicum." This is a 

 species of Sibthorpia. 



Veronica sparsiflora Raf., Atl. Jour. 79. 1832. Described from 

 a plant in the Bartram Botanical Garden, Philadelphia, Pa., which 

 was said to have been " native of Arkansas or Texas, received from 

 Prof. Nuttall." I know of no American species at all fitting this 

 description: "stem erect, simple round solid, leaves opposite sessile 

 cuneate oblong entire obtuse. Raceme terminal lax very long, 

 flowers scattered, bracts linear oblong obtuse, pedicels filiform. 



Capsules bilobed subcompressed. Annual Stem 1 or 



2 feet high. Flowers vernal purpurescent handsome. Corolla 



rotate, segments of the calix unequal oblong, obtuse " 



Is it a foreign species, or not a Veronicaf 



New York Botanical Garden. 



AN ESTUARIAN VARIETY OF SCIRPUS SMITHII. 



Norman C. Fassett 



While examining material of Scirpus Smithii Gray, collected last 

 August on the banks of the Cathance River at Bowdoinham, Maine, 

 the writer found that all the individuals from that locality had achenes 

 with a perianth of bristles which differed from those of var. setosus 

 Fernald by their complete lack of barbs. Material from Back River 

 Creek in Woolwich and from the Androscoggin River at Brunswick 

 proved on examination to have similar smooth bristles about the 

 achene. The length of the bristles, moreover, instead of being uni- 

 form and greater than that of the achenes, as in var. setosus, was 

 variable even on the same achene, and while an occasional bristle 

 exceeded it, this was not common, and there were no cases in which 

 all the bristles exceeded the achene. The number of bristles was also 



