62 



PTTTONIA. 



of Americfm Eanuucnli. No critical stuJeiit of tliese plants 

 will long entertain a doubt of the identity of li. rhomboidcus 

 and ovalis ; and the priority of the latter name is great, 

 unless the rhomhouhnis of Eafinesque be concluded to be the 

 same as his ovalis, both of which were published in the same 

 year. And, in that case Kafinesque's authorship of the name 

 rhouihouleus lung antedates that of Goldie. Dr. Gray in his 

 latest notes w^rote E. rJwmhoidcus, Eaf., but with a mark of 

 doubt, E. ovalis, Eaf., for the same plant should be used 

 because tliere is no doubt about it. Dr. Gray also remarked 

 that E. hrevicmdis of Hooker seemed to be a depressed form 

 of the same species. It is not so much as that. It is merely 

 the early state of a plant which always unfolds its earliest 

 blossoms almost before the stem begins to grow, attaining 

 even its medium height only some weeks later. I speak from 

 long acquaintance with the plant as it grows in regions just 

 to the westward of the Great Lakes, where it is almost the 

 earliest flower of spring, appearing as a mere dwarf, in March 

 or April, and afterwards undergoing remarkable changes of 

 si^^e and aspect in every individual. 



E. LAOTSTEis, Beck & Tracy, in Eat. Man. ed. 3, 423 (1822), 

 Ibid. ed. 4, 424 (1824), ed. 5, 359 (1829), ed. 6. 298 (I'^BS). ed. 

 7, 477 (1836) ; Beck, Bot. N. & Mid. States, 9 (1833); Paine, 

 Catal. Oneid. Co. 130 (18G5) ; E. muUfJidiis, Bigel. Fl. Bost. 

 ed. 2, 228 (1824) and of Gray Man. ed. 5, 40 and ed 6, 41, 

 excL var. terresfn's, perhaps not of Pursh (1814), certainly 

 not of Forskaal (1775) : E. PursJui in part of many authors, 

 beginning with Eichardson (1823). 



Stem stout, hollow, from two to four feet long, growing in 

 deep water : leaves submersed, short-petioled, ternately cleft 

 into innumerable linear-filiform segments : inflorescence con- 

 tracted, leafless, scarious bracts subtending the short fistulous 

 peduncles; flower buds submersed: sepals thin (not reflexed?), 

 apparently caducous ; corolla bright yellow, nearly an inch 

 wide : head of carpels globose : body of achene ^ line long, 

 lower half of the margin conspicuously callous- or corky- 



