The Genus Teucrium in the Eastern United States 



By Eugene P. Bicknell 



Here and there along the shores of the Hudson near New 

 York, grows a germander with palest pink flowers. The plant 

 has long been familiar to me and, in accordance with established 



usage, I have alw r ays known it as the Teiicriiim Canadense of Lin- 

 naeus — the single species of the genus credited generally to the 

 eastern states. 



In Maine, some years ago, the same plant was found growing 



* 



in abundance on stony shores back of the beaches both along the 

 ocean and about the mouth of the York River. Here, however, 

 there occurred with it at several places a somewhat stouter plant 

 having rose-purple flowers which, although greatly resembling 

 the other was obviously not the same. 



An added interest came into the matter when, upon the occasion 

 of a joint field meeting of the Philadelphia and New York botan- 



ical societies in Bucks 



July 



germander just in flower along the shores of the Delaware River 

 was readily seen to be different from the two which had been 

 previously met with ; and even more interesting was the receipt of 

 specimens collected on the shores of Lake Champlain by Mr. W. 

 W. Eggleston which again it was impossible to correlate satisfac- 

 torily with anything before seen. 



An examination of the herbaria of the New York Botanical 

 Garden and Columbia University showed that the mass of eastern 

 specimens could be readily sorted into two series, one represent- 

 ing a coastwise plant, that of the Hudson River — the other being 

 the plant of the Delaware and showing it to be our commonest and 



generally distributed species. In these considerable collections 



most 



M 



Champlain plant only by a few examples mostly from the same 

 localities from which I had already received it. In addition two 

 specimens from Michigan possessing characters not shared by any 



■ 



of the others were especially noteworthy, as well as a typical ex- 



166 



