8 
Louisiana in salt and fresh water marshes. A widely diffused 
species, native not only of the United States, but also of Brazil, 
Chile, many of the Pacific Islands and Southern Africa. (Plate 
XXI, with a ripe fruit magnified.) 
3. TRIGLOCHIN MARITIMA, L. Sp. Pl. 339 (175 3). 
7. Mexicana, Н. В. К. Nov. Gen., i. 244 (1815). 
7. elata, Nutt. Gen. i. 237 (1818). 
7. maritima, var. elata, A. Gray, Man. Ed. 2, 437 (1852). 
A perennial plant with a long, unstoloniferous, often sub- 
ligneous, rootstock, and a thick caudex which is usually covered 
with the sheaths of old leaves. Scapes stout, nearly terete, striate, 
12 to 24 inches high, commonly solitary. Leaves much shorter 
than the scapes, fleshy, semi-cylindrical, striate, tapering gradually 
to a long acute or obtuse point. The leaves are usually about 1 
line broad, but sometimes, as in a specimen collected in California 
by Dr. Bigelow, on Lieut. Whipple's expedition, reaching a width 
of nearly 2% lines. Flowers very numerous, often densely crowded 
on the scape, and even appearing verticillate at times. The ra- 
cemes often reach a length of 40 cm. or more; pedicels decurrent, 
I to 1% lines long, slightly increasing in fruit. Perianth seg- 
ments, 6, the 3 interior smaller, ovate and greenish-white, each sub- 
tending a large sessile anther. Ovaries 6, united, each 1-celled 
and I-ovuled; stigmas sessile, plumose. Fruit 2% or 3 lines 
long and 1% to 2 lines thick, oblong or ovate, obtuse at the base, 
with 6 recurved points at the apex. Carpels 6, 3-angled, flat or 
slightly grooved on the back, or the dorsal edges curving upwards 
and sharply winged (7. elata, Nutt.), separating at maturity from 
a hexagonal axis; seeds much smaller than the thick membranous 
carpels, straight or slightly curved; raphe not conspicuous. 
The distinctions between this species and the form elata of 
Nuttall, depending upon the presence or absence of wings on the 
carpels, are too inconstant to warrant even the making of a variety. 
T. maritima generally occurs on salt marshes, along the sea- 
coast and on saline grounds in the interior of the country, but is 
not uncommon in fresh marshes, It is widely spread on our con- 
tinent from Labrador to New Jersey, and westward to Alaska 
and California. From Southern Mexico to Terra del Fuego, and 
in Europe and Asia it is equally common. (Plate XXII.) 
