460 TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OP SCIENCE. 



6032, lib. norm. 52. With a good deal of hesitation, express- 

 ed in the specific name given to this plant, I venture to sepa- 

 rate it from the closely allied J. oxymeris of the same region. 

 Its rounded and only slightly compressed leaves certainly 

 seem to be very distinct from the flattened equitant leaves of 

 the latter species, but otherwise the whole appearance, the 

 rhizoma, the panicle, the flower, the stamens even, and the 

 fruit, show scarcely any difference; only the seed proves dis- 

 tinct, and as, I believe, Ave can safely rely on characters de- 

 rived from the sculpture of this organ, we must consider both 

 as really distinct species. The seeds of J. oxymeris show on 

 one side 7-9 ribs and a distinct reticulation, the area? being 

 smooth, and only the ribs slightly crenulate ; J. dubius has 

 seeds of the same size (0.22-0.25 line long), but with fewer 

 (5-7) ribs, and larger, strongly lineolate areoe. The panicle 

 of this plant is 3-5 inches long, the flowers slender, and with 

 the capsule nearly 2 lines long. 



36. ,T. militaris, Bigelow, Flor. Bost. ed. 2 (1824), p. 139; 

 Gray Man. ed. 2, p. 482, was "discovered by B. D. Greene at 

 Tewksbury," and has since been traced from Maine, Blake, 

 to Massachusetts, and southward to the Pocono Mountains 

 in Pennsylvania, T. Green, New Jersey, Asa Gray, G F. 

 Parker, Maryland, A. Commons, and, if there is no error in 

 the label, as far as Alabama, Drummond. — The stout stems, 

 2-4 feet high, spring from a creeping rootstock, and bear on 

 their lower half a single leaf, £-3£ feet long, which usually 

 overtops the inflorescence, and is mostly followed by a second 

 very short one, rarely developed beyond the vaginal part. The 

 decompound, rather crowded, and often somewhat contracted 

 light brown panicle is 2-5, usually about 3, inches long; the 

 heads are 5-12 flowered, only in a Maryland specimen I find 

 them 15-25 flowered. Flowers (in the North in August) \\ 

 lines long; sepals lanceolate, outer ones subulate-pointed or 

 even aristate, mostly very little shorter than the acute inner 

 ones; stamens 6, two-thirds the length of the sepals; linear 

 anthers a little longer than the filaments; stigmas exsert, as 

 long as the ovate acuminate ovary and the distinct style to- 

 gether; capsule sharply triangular, ovate, acuminate, rostrate, 

 equalling or slightly exceeding the sepals, one-celled ; seeds 

 obovate, obtuse, unusually thick, and abruptly apiculate, 

 0.25-0.30 line long, and three-fifths of their length in diam- 

 eter, neatly reticulate, the arete marked with few longitudinal 

 lines; 8-10 ribs visible. 



Dr. Robbins has discovered a very curious peculiarity of 

 this plant, which abounds in the Blackstone river, near Ux- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, and its tributaries, and in the flumes 

 of the manufactories, but only in rapid parts of these streams, 

 and is there not found in sluggish streams or in stagnant 



