1914] Fernald,— Variations of Stellaria borealis 147 
occur which leave no single character that can be held as belonging 
alone to one or another of these plants. 
Furthermore, it is very improbable that Bongard's Sitkan Stellaria 
calycantha bad anything to do with the Siberian Arenaria calycantha 
of Ledebour with which it has been universally identified and from 
which it derived its specific name. Were it not practically certain 
that Bongard had before him and described a different plant, the name 
calycantha, originating in 1812, would have to be taken up as the 
specific name for the complex species. But an examination of Lede- 
bour's original description of Arenaria calycantha shows that he had a 
plant, possibly a true Arenaria, with two ovate bracts toward the 
summit of each peduncle. Ledebour’s diagnosis of the species and 
his descriptions of the peduncle follow: 
* A. foliis oblongis acutis sessilibus basi ciliatis, pedunculis axillaribus 
unifloris diphyllis. 
Pedunculi terminalis et axillares, uniflori, supra medium diphylli. 
Flores nutantes, interdum bractea ovata, acuta, calyce majori suffulti.” ! 
Although Bongard supposed his Sitkan Stellaria calycantha to be 
Arenaria calycantha Ledeb., it is clear from his account that he had 
not seen material of Ledebour’s species but depended upon a determi- 
nation by Meyer “(fide amiciss. D. Meyer, qui specimina originalia 
videt)." But Bongard's own species, based on Mertens's material 
from Sitka, has, as shown by a cotype in the Gray Herbarium labeled 
by Bongard himself as well as by his description, naked peduncles and 
is the plant of the Northwest which has been correctly identified with 5. 
calycantha Bong.; but it obviously is not Arenaria calycantha Ledeb. 
The Bongard S. calycantha of the Northwest, as already stated, 
reappears in the Northeast, being the short-leaved plant so familiar 
in the alpine region of the White Mountains; and, although S. borealis 
has of late been interpreted in America as a plant with elongate linear- 
lanceolate leaves, it becomes evident from Bigelow's original descrip- 
tion that he had the White Mountain plant which closely matches 
S. calycantha Bong. The significant portion of Bigelow’s description 
of S. borealis was as follows: 
t STELLARIA BOREALIS Northern Stellaria. 
S. foliis ovali-lanceolatis; pedunculis axillaribus, elongatis, unifloris; 
petalis calyci subaequalibus. 
1 Ledeb. 1. c. 
