140 Rhodora [AvavsT 
tion, however, gives us the characters: “leaves with the lobes divergent, 
... floating, or more often erect, with petioles flattened or sub- 
cylindric (feuilles. ...à lobes divergents,....flottantes, ou le plus 
souvent dressées, à pétioles aplatis ou demi-cylindriques)." These 
characters belong, then, chiefly to the southern N. advena, which has 
leaves erect (or “occasionally floating in deep water") with divergent 
lobes and subterete petioles, rather than to the northern species with 
floating leaves with narrower or closed sinus and “conspicuously 
flattened” petioles, though it is possible that Provancher's “ pétioles 
aplatis" referred to the latter; but it is obvious that Provancher's 
“leaves with the lobes divergent" and “more often erect " throw the 
greater part of his diagnosis of the foliage to the southern N. advena; 
for the less often floating leaves cannot be taken as clearly indicating 
the northern plant, since the southern N. advena has them “ occasion- 
ally floating in deep water." The floral characters given by Pro- 
vancher are inconclusive, for his *Stigmate à 12-15 rayons, à bords 
crénelés" might belong to either the northern plant, described by 
Miller and Standley with “stigma rays 7 to 25” and with “margin of 
the disk definitely although not deeply crenate"; or to the southern 
with “stigmatic disk. . .entire, faintly undulate....stigma rays.... 
from 9 to 23." And Provancher's description of the fruit as “strongly 
furrowed (fortement sillonné)” inevitably suggests the southern N. 
advena, with its “fruit. ...with conspicuous longitudinal ribs," quite 
as vividly as it does the northern plant, with “fruit... .less strongly 
ribbed."  Provancher's diagnosis was, then, like the name, Nuphar 
americana, intended to cover the aggregate N. advena of his day and 
not to distinguish a northern species different from the southern. 
This is further indicated by the broad range given by Provancher, 
“Lake St. John to Georgia," for surely Georgia is well within the range 
of true N. advena and far south of the limits of N. variegata, while 
Lake St. John is near the northern limit of the latter species. The 
interpretation by Miller & Standley of Provancher's broad range as 
“the type locality, Lake St. John-Georgie, Quebec,....far beyond 
the range of Nymphaea advena," is apparently due to a misreading of 
the original text; for Provancher, like the author of any other Manual, 
was merely giving the ranges, not the type localities, of the species 
included, but he frequently cited stations near the city of Quebec 
where he knew the plant. This fact, obvious on almost any page of 
his Flore, is illustrated not only by Nuphar americana but by the 
immediately preceding and immediately following species: 
