Igor] BRIEFER ARTICLES 59 
As*this was gathered by American botanists I record it in an Ameri- 
can journal, the more so as I wish to point out that there is some hope 
it may occur in Massachusetts in the neighborhood of where Cad/una 
vulgaris L. occurs. The label of the Newfoundland specimens runs 
thus: 
No. 231. P. heterophyllus Schreb. Muddy banks of brooks. Whit- 
bourne. 17.8. 1890. Coll. B. L. Robinson (and) H. Schrenk. Distributed 
from the Herbarium of Harvard University. 
The two specimens are not P. heterophyllus, however, but P. 
polygonifolius in its usual “heath” form. As this is the first time it 
appears in American books it may be well to give the synonymy and 
distribution. . 
P. POLYGONIFOLIUS Pourr. in Acad. Toul. 3:325. 1788. 
P. oblongus Viv. Anal. Bot. 2: 102. 1802; alsoin Fragm. Fl. It. 1:1. f7. 2. 
808 
P. plantago Batard, Fl. dep. Maine et Loire 64. 1809. 
; P. parnassifolius Schrad. (ined. 1818) ex Mert. et Koch, Deut. Fl. 1: 839. 
1823. 
P. uliginosus et affine Boenning ex Cham. in Linnaea 2: 216. 1827. 
P. paludosus Bory in sched. ex Cham. Z. c. 
P. natans intermedius Mert. et Koch, Deut. Fl. 2 ¢. 
P. microcarpus Reut. et Boiss. Diag. Pl. Nov. Hisp. 2:24. 1842 is a 
variety, or perhaps a subspecies. 
Dist. Europe: Iceland to Piedmont, and Holland to Russia. 
ASIA: Siberia altai (Led.) to Mongolia, and China to India and Japan. 
AFRICA: Morocco to Transvaal? (Wilms), and } Madagascar. 
AUSTRALIA: New Zealand. 
The species varies greatly, the var. y erécetorum Syme, Eng. Bot. ed. 
3,9:28. 1869, representing the small heath form, often growing in 
mud, the var. B pseudo-fluitans Syme, /. c., the other extreme, 7. ¢., a 
fluitant form often in deep or running water with thin translucent 
submerged leaves and coriaceous upper leaves. 
It may be distinguished from wafans by the small fruit, the blunt 
Stipules, the base of the leaves never having the flexible joint of zatans 
(there are no “strings” in the leaf of polygonifolius) which enables that 
species to turn its leaves in any direction; from heterophyllus by the 
style being central, by the nervation of the leaves, etc. 
‘I hope to send specimens of this species to various American bot- 
anists next fall, so that they may know it and keep it in view.— 
ARTHUR BENNETT, Croydon, England. 
. 
