ae | 
us 
ce 
from our Manuals, one would infer that its characteristics were 80 
fickle as to make it unworthy of being regarded even as a variety ~ 
of the Portulacastrum, for neither Gray nor Wood alludes to its” 
existence. ; : 
Chapman recognizes both species, and evidently considers them 
entirely distinct ; and, as they are peculiarly southern plants, his 
opinion would seem to be worthy of much consideration. a 
As the plants are seldom seen at the north, I venture to give 
their peculiarities : 
8. Portulacastrum, L.—Leaves lanceolate and oblong, acute ; flowers 
pedicelled nearly } an inch, stamens numerous, 15 to 60; pe- 
rennial ; Florida and northward. ea 
8. pentandrum, Ell.—Leaves spatulate, obovate, obtuse; flowers sessile; 
stamens five in the sutures of the Calyx ; annual? FI—N.C. 
Chapman places an interrogation mark after annual, and it is im- | 
portant to determine what the fact may be. : 
It has been common for many years past to give the range of 
Sesuvium Portulacastrum “from N. J. southward,” and yet I am in-— 
clined to believe that the typical form of this species with numerous — 
and variable stamens does not occur at all upon the shore of N. J. : 
My evidence is of course negative, but such as it is I give it. The 4 
first notice that I find of the genus in N. J. isin Nuttall’s Genera of _ 
Northern Plants (1818), where it is described as JS. sessile, DC., 
“leaves spathulate, flowers sessile ”—which, to judge from the above _ 
description, was S. pentandrum. Since Nuttall, S. Portulacastrum has — 
continued to be quoted from “N. J. southward.” The genus is not 
mentioned in Torrey & Gray’s Plants of the U. 8. 
In the summer of 1870, I discovered S. pentandrum at Kast 
Hampton, L. I. (Bulletin Vol. L, § 91.) Prior to that time I believe _ 
it was not known to grow north of N. J. I recently received from 
Mr. J. H. Redfield, of Philadelphia, a letter in.answer to inquiries, — 
from which I make the following extract : e 
“In the summer of 1869 my friend C. F. Parker of Camden col- 
lected at Cape May, N. J., a Sesuvium which he supposed to be of A 
course the Portulacastrum, L., until an examination showed him it — 
was the pentandrum, Ell. Last summer I found at Atlantic City, 
N. J., a Sesuvium which I also supposed to be the Portulacastrum, — 
until a close examination showed it to be the other form. Iam _ 
also informed that Dr. Leidy of Philadelphia has collected S. pen-— 
tandrum at Cape Henlopen, so that, including your locality (Kast — 
Hampton, L. L.), we have now four points for it, reaching from Cape 
Henlopen to the east end of Long Island. But the curious point in 
the matter is that in this region o 
at least of our sea coast no one, 80 _ 
far as I can learn, has found the typical Portulacastrum.” ee 
Here then is a plant growing for 300 miles along our coast, in-— 
variably of one form—the pentandrum. Surely this indicates a per- - 
sistency which should entitle the form to rank at least as a variety. — 
Mr. Redfield was good enough to send me specimens both from | 
Cape May and Atlantic City. They fulfil the concise and exact 
description of Chapman, and correspond entirely with my own spe-- 
cimens from East Hampton. 
* . 
