30 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 
S. ANGUSTIFOLIUM Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 189 (1803). S. affine 
Schnitzl. Typhac. 27 (1845). This is a circumpolar species and the 
identity of the Eurasian S. affine with our plant is clear. The specimen 
in the Michaux herbarium at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in 
Paris, from Lake Mistassini, is the same as S. affine. This was deter- 
mined by the present writer in 1903, but it had been earlier settled, 
apparently, by Engelmann! who had in 1867 cited the two as synony- 
nous; and in 1888 Morong stated that, *Dr. Engelmann writes in a 
manuscript note in my possession that he, himself has seen Michaux "o 
specimen at Paris. To this name, therefore, belongs the right of 
priority [over S. affine]. "2 
The range in New England of S. angustifolium (as well as the other 
boreal species, S. fluctuans and S. minimum) presents one feature 
which needs further study. S. angustifolium is common in the up- 
land and northern regions of New England, extending south to 
Androscoggin Co., Maine, and Carroll and Grafton Counties, New 
Hampshire. So far as our collections indicate it is absent from south- 
western Maine and southern New Hampshire, yet it occurs south of 
there and at lower altitudes in lakes of Essex, Middlesex and Norfolk 
Counties, Massachusetts. Is it truly absent from southwestern Maine 
and southern New Hampshire? 
S. FLUCTUANS (Morong) Robinson. In the very firm texture of 
its fruit, with the epicarp closely investing the seed, S. fluctuans is 
unique, all our other species with long beaks having the thin and 
brittle epicarp easily detached from the seed. In all our other species 
of Sparganium, too, the sepals are borne chiefly at the summit of the 
stipe or, in the stipeless S. eurycarpum, at the base of the body of the 
fruit, and they extend from halfway nearly to the summit of the fruit. 
In S. fluctuans, on the other hand, the sepals are borne chiefly along 
the middle of thestipe and rarely reach the middle of the fruit. This, 
one of the most distinct species of the genus, is too little collected, 
presumably because it occurs in comparatively deep water of the 
larger lakes and ponds. Itis essentially a boreal species, ranging from 
1 Engelm. in Gray, Man. ed. 5, 482 (1867). 
2 Morong, Bull. Torr. Bot. Cl. xv. 79 (1888). In a recent attempt (Journ. Bot. 
lix. 230) to clear the synonymy Mr. Arthur Bennett has misquoted Morong’s words 
as follows: "In 1888 Morong (Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, 79) remarks: "Engel: 
man([n] has seen Michaux's specimen at Paris, and it is the same as affine';" and then 
drawn the amazing conclusion that, ‘It seems that for our plant we must use Mich- 
aux's name afine.” 
