1914] Jack,— Plural Seeds in Acorns 141 
Nymphaea odorata. *Québec-Lae Supérieur, dans les lacs où les eaux 
mortes, Lac Calvet à St. Augustin! Lac St. Pierre!" 
Nuphar Kalmiana. ‘Baie d'Hudson-Lae Supérieur; marais et mares, 
Bécancour!" 
It should be clear then, it would seem, that Provancher's Nuphar 
americana was merely the mixed N. advena of his day, but with its 
characters chiefly drawn from descriptions of the southern plant; and 
that in using the name N. americana he was, as he said, merely 
substituting an appropriate name for the highly inappropriate one 
originally given by Aiton. There seems to be, therefore, no good 
reason why we should take up the name Nymphaea americana (Pro- 
vancher) Miller & Standley for the perfectly clear and unquestioned 
N. variegata (Engelm.) G. S. Miller. 
PLURAL SEEDS IN ACORNS. 
Jonn G. JACK. 
CONCERNING the interesting note by Mr. Charles Piper Smith, in 
the February number of RHopora, p. 41, upon “ Plurality of Seeds in 
Acorns of Quercus prinus," it may be well to recall that one of the 
first, if not the first, in this country to publish a statement concerning 
this peculiarity was the late Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Philadelphia. 
Mr. Meehan is recorded, in the Proceedings of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1871, pp. 155-157, as stating at a 
meeting of the Academy that, “In the case of Quercus robur a plurality 
of plantlets from one sprouting seed was not uncommon. He had 
found dozens in a peck of seed. These were usually in twos, but occa- 
sionally in threes. Of the last he exhibited only one specimen. He 
had examined a half peck of sprouting acorns of Quercus palustris and 
another of Quercus macrocarpa, but in these he could detect no sign 
of variation — each seed seemed cleft smoothly and directly through 
the center into two regularly equal halves." In Quercus rubra he did 
not find a plurality of embryos although numerous specimens were 
examined, but he refers to the frequent partial division of the coty- 
ledons by two, three, or four fissures as being remarkable. 
'The observations made by Mrs. E. G. Britton, and referred to by 
