ROBINSON. — ALSINE.E. 309 



the slender stems : flowers terminal, large for the genus, 4 lines in 

 diameter when expanded. — Verbr. Alsin. t. 18, & Ledeb. Fl. Ross, 

 i. 340. Spergula nodosa, L. Spec. 440. — Moist sandy soil. Coast 

 of Maine south to Cape Ann, J. Robinson ; also on both shores of 

 Lake Superior and northward to Hudson Bay. 



13. SPEE/G-UL.ARIA, Pers. (Name, a derivative of Sper- 

 gula.~) Annuals or perennials, usually of maritime and saline habitat, 

 with narrowly linear, often fleshy leaves. A genus of moderate size 

 but difficult, through the natural variability of certain species, the incon- 

 stancy of characters (such as the form of the seeds) which elsewhere 

 are most trustworthy, and finally through an unfortunate complication 

 in the synonymy, arising both from the most diverse views as to the 

 number and proper limitation of the species and from the differences 

 in the choice of the generic name. Space does not here permit any 

 complete discussion of the last point. It may, however, be said that 

 the name Spergularta is the only one which has ever attained a wide 

 use, having been employed in such excellent popular manuals as Hooker 

 & Bentham's Handb. Brit. Fl., Hooker's Fl. Brit. Isl., Garcke's Fl. 

 Deutsch., Gray's Man., eds. 1-5, Cosson & Germain's Synop. Analyt., 

 etc. Beside this matter of popular usage of the past, there is at 

 present the best authority for selecting this name, since it is the one 

 retained by the Kew botanists, and is advoeated in the Berlin recom- 

 mendations. On the other hand, the more radical reformers of nomen- 

 clature have attained no unanimity in regard to the proper name for 

 the genus ; Professors Baillon, Greene, and Britton adopting l^issa. 

 Dr. Kuntze Buda, and Mr. N. E. Brown Corion, while Prof. Pax, who 

 in his Monograph of the Caryophyllaceoe in Engler & Prantl's Nat. 

 Pflanzenf. used Ti'ssa, in a later publication has returned to Spergu- 

 laria. — Syn. i. 504; Gray, Gen. ii. 27, t. 108; Benth. & Hook. 

 Gen. i. 152. Arenaria, L. Gen. n. 374 in pirt. Corion, Mitchell, 

 Act. Phys. Med. Acad. Nat. Cur. viii. App. 218, fide Britton in Brit- 

 ten's Journ. of Bot. xxix. 303 ; N. E. Brown, Suppl. Eng. Bot. 

 Tissa, Adans. Fain, des PI. ii. 507; Baillon, Hist, des PI. ix. 116; 

 Britton, Bull. Torr. Club, xvi. 125; Greene, Fl. Francis. 126, & 

 Man. Bay Reg. 35. Buda, Adans. 1. c. i. 507 ; Dumort. Fl. Belg. 110; 

 Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, S9. Lepigonum, Fries, Fl. Hall. 

 76; Kindberg, Monogr. ; Wats. Bibl. Ind. 103. 



# Procumbent, or decumbent, slender, scarcely at all flesby, growing near or 

 even on the seacoast, hut not truly saline : flowers small or of medium size: 

 petals magenta : stipules lanceolate, elongated and conspicuous. 



S. rubra. Presl. Usually annual, smoothish below, finely glan- 

 dular-pubescent above : stems spreading, wiry : leaves fiat above, nar- 



