MARSILIA QUADRIFOLIA. 



FOUR-LEAVED MARSILIA. 



NATURAL ORDER, MARSILIACE/li. 



Marsilia QUADRIFOLIA, Limixus. — Leaflets broadly obovate-cuneate, glabrous; sporocarps 

 usually two or three on a short peduncle from near the base of the petioles, ijedicelled, 

 glabrous, or somewhat hairy. {Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States. 

 See also Wood's Class-Book of Botany!) 



HIS genus, which has been long known to botanists, is 

 generally written Marsilca, but Dr. Asa Gray remarks 

 in his " Manual " that it was named in honor of Aloysius IVIarsili, 

 an early Italian naturalist, and therefore should be written 

 Marsilia. It is probably one of the most interesting genera 

 that we could introduce to American readers, for although some 

 species are more or less to be found all over the world, it is yet 

 extremely rare that American botanists get the opportunity of 

 examining any of them. The present species, Marsilia quadri- 

 folia, has only been found in this country during recent years; 

 and for some time only a single locality, at Bantam Lake, near 

 Litchfield, Connecticut, where it was discovered by Dr. T. F. 

 Allen, was known to produce it. Indeed, it is still doubtful 

 whether the species found in the other localities since recorded 

 is really the one of which we now treat ; and if so, whether it is 

 indigenous therein. It was found in Fresh Pond, near Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. ; but Dr. Gray explains in the " Bulletin of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club," that although so well established there, 

 it is known to have been first introduced from the Connecticut 

 station, and it may be so in some other places. Prof. Wood, in 

 the edition of his "Class-Book" for iS 74, describes it, on the 

 strength of a specimen sent him by Dr. Hale, from Louisiana, 



