210 Rhodora [DECEMBER 
THE WESTERN VARIETY OF MAIANTHEMUM 
CANADENSE. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
THE conventional descriptions of Maianthemum canadense Desf. 
in our manuals read: “Pubescent or glabrous"! or “Glabrous or 
pubescent,” ? and a somewhat similar statement can be traced through 
the writings of various authors as far back at least as Hooker, who, 
writing of the plant of British America (“ Newfoundland to the Rocky 
Mountains"), said “More or less downy or glabrous."? Prior to 
Hooker, however, the students of American botany, dealing chiefly with 
the plants of the Appalachian district, had described our plant as gla- 
brous. Thus Pursh, who studied the plant sufficiently to distinguish 
two varieties based upon leaf-outline, said “foliis . . . utrinque glaber- 
rimis" * and Torrey wrote “leaves....very smooth on both sides.” 
The latter descriptions, by botanists who knew the plants of the 
Appalachian region, exactly agree with the original diagnosis of 
Maianthemum canadense by Desfontaines: "foliis. . . .utrinque glaber- 
rimis," ê and they perfectly describe the plant which occurs from 
Labrador to North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan and east- 
ern Ontario. A study of nearly two hundred collections of the plant 
has failed to reveal a single pubescent specimen within the area above 
defined; while west of Indiana, Michigan and adjacent Ontario the 
plant is pilose upon the stem, rhachis and leaves (at least beneath). 
The only exception thus far seen is glabrous material on a mixed sheet 
from Brown County, Wisconsin; but with this single exception all the 
specimens seen from western Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and 
Alberta, southward to South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois are pubescent. 
Study of the flowers has failed to reveal any differences in them and 
in outline the foliage of the western pubescent plant closely simulates 
1 Watson & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 526 (1890); Robinson & Fernald in Gray, 
Man. ed. 7, 291 (1908). 
? Britton in Britton & Brown, Ill. Fl. i. 431 (1896), ed. 2, 517 (1913) under Unifolium 
canadense. 
3 Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 176 (1839) under Smilacina bifolia. 
* Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i, 233 (1814) under Smilacina canadensis. 
5 Torr. Fl. No. & Mid. U. S. i. 353 (1824) under Convallaria bifolia. 
* Desf. Ann. Mus. Paris, ix. 54 (1807). 
