2i5 ' BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



In a running streamlet at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains, 

 discovered by W. G. Wright, and seen there by me also in Novem- 

 ber. — With/! asper \k{t only species of our flora with rough epidermis. 

 It may be compared with loose panicled forms of J. acuminatus var. 

 debilis, but is readily distinguished by its roughness and its 6 stamens, 

 and then, no forms of J. acuminatus occur west of the great plains. 



MoNANTHOCHLOE LiTTORALis, Engelm., heretofore only known 

 from coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, I found on the Bay of San 

 Diego, Cal. , where it grows with that curious Batis maritiftia, already 

 noticed there 30 years ago by Dr. Parry. 



Is Chenopodium viride, L., a 2:ood species?— It may not be 



advisable for amateurs in natural science to be tinkering with the lim- 

 its of species, yet I cannot forbear, after more than a score of years 

 o\ acquaintance, adding my honest convictions on the relation of the 

 above named species with Chenopodkmi album, L. It was in my boy- 

 hood days, that, with hoe in hand I was called upon to wage a war of 

 extermination on the "milfoil, "or "mildew, "as it is generally called by 

 our farmers; and this, as I remember it now, was always the broad 

 leaved form (C. album), and was to be found in almost every field and 

 fence-row. During the last ten years the implement has been the 

 botanical text-book, and I have had the pleasure of seeing the old 

 enemy gradually growing less common. But its place is now being 

 taken by a hardier, earlier-blooming and narrower-leaved form (C. 

 viride, L.), which does not show any disposition, so far as I can dis- 

 cern, to become intermingled with its predecessor and weaker brother. 

 Our modern authorities* appear to regard C viride, L. as a deep green, 

 narrower-leaved and more mealy form of C. album, L.; while by some 

 of the earlier authorities this order is reversed and C. album, L. is re- 

 garded as possibly not a good species, and that it may simply be a 

 variety of C. viride, L. The main distinctions given are, that in the 

 former, especially when full grown, the stem and leaves are a paler 

 green, that the flowers are more dense on the branches, and that it 

 blooms in July and August. Both are said to be extensively 

 used as potherbs when in the young and tender stage. f 



The following are the differences I have observed, and are my 

 reasons for considering them distinct species : 



(a) C. viride blooms from four to six weeks earlier. 



(b) Its general growth is more erect, the branches assuming 

 more nearly the vertical position. 



(c) The whole plant is a deeper green. 



(d) The leaves are narrower, varying from ovate-lanceolate to 



♦Gray, Manual of the Botany of Northern U. S., Fifth Edition; Watson, Revleion of 

 N. A. Chenopodiacese; Wood, Class-Booli ol Botany. 



fSee a German encyclopedic work of botany by Dr. G. W. F. Pancer, 

 published about one hundred years since, in fifteen vohimes, with copper- 

 plates, and based on Houttuyn's translation and notes of the thirteenth edi- 

 tion of CarohisA. Linne's System of Plants. This is a monumental work of its 

 period, and gives a scientific and popular description of all tlie plants then 

 known. 



