452 THE GENUS ISOETES IN NORTH AMERICA. 
IIL THE GENUS ISOETES IN NORTH AMERICA.* 
FroM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE Sr. Louris ACADEMY OF ScreNCcE, Vou. IV. 1882. 
§ 1. History or Isoires 1n NorrH AMERICA. 
Tue Jsoétes, insignificant and apparently sterile as they are, were long overlooked or [858 (1)] 
ignored by our botanists, so that until thirty or forty years ago very few specimens were 
collected, and none were distinguished from J. lacustris, if we except Nuttall’s guess at his Oregon 
discovery ; but the genus has attracted so much attention, and lately so many forms have become 
known, that it seems to me an interesting task to trace up the history of the discovery of the dif- 
ferent species and their varieties, and of the area of their distribution, and then the date of their 
publication, before I enter into their scientific description. 
he revision of Eastern Isoétes by Dr. Engelmann, in 
Gray’s Manual, 5th ed., 1868, 675-677, has been omitted 
from this volume. The original description of I. saccharata, 
which appeared in it, is given as a foot-note at the proper 
place. — Eps. 
1 +, Discovery. — 1806 (?). The first notice which we 
have of an Jsoéfes in North America is given oe Pursh’s 
Flora, ii. 671, where he states that ** Tsoétes lacustris” grows 
a = bottom pal Oswego River, near the falls, are adds his 
,Ww eans that he saw it living, and therefore prob- 
ably found it ‘himeclt and as he travelled through the re- 
gions near the Great Lakes in 1806, it was probably i in that 
year that he met with it. I have not seen Pursh’s speci- 
mens, but doubt not but that it will have to be referred to J. 
echinospora, var. Braunii, the only form thus far known 
from Western New York. 
1815. Th. Nuttall collected ‘‘Z. lacustris” abundant 
gravelly and miry shores of the Dela- 
22, according to the label of a specimen in Collins’s Herba- 
rium, presented to me by E. Durand. It proves to be J. 
empark 
Some of his specimens 
are now found in the ela Philad. Acad. Natural Science, 
and one in the St. Petersburg Imperial Herb. Some of them 
are labelled ‘‘ Catskill Mountains,” and others ‘‘ Bethlehem,” 
the latter, ee was von Schweinitz’s residence, steam! by 
mistake. of the specimens was loaned by the late Elias 
Durand—in w ion ion it was—to Durieu 
de Maisonneuve, who founded on it his L empeet Acs (2)] 
spoRA. No date being indicated on the labels, 
above-mentioned year is a mere guess 
1825 (?). Jens Vahl collected in Greenland a small Jso- 
étes, referred to J. a 
forms of I. echi: 
1831. J. W. Robbins gust an Isoétes near Uxbridge, 
Mass., which I recognize as I. riparia. 
1832. C.J. Moser, who sallected for the German Unio 
Itineraria, obtained specimens on the Lehigh River, near 
hlehem, Pa., and near Philadelph ia, both of which were 
distributed to the subscribers as I. lacustris. One of these 
(in Herb. Bernhardi, now in the Herb. Missouri Bot. Gar- 
den) represents J. _Engelmanni ; another, which I have seen 
in Europe, {s I. riparia. 
1834. Th. Nuttall dinsovivel an Isoétes on the Columbia 
which proves to be one of the 
River in Oregon, which I saw in E. Durand’s Herb. with 
NvuTrauLu. About the same year Drummond collected “ Z 
is’’ on the Saskatchewan, according to Hooker’s FI. 
Bor.-Am. ii. 268, which I have not been able to compare and 
to identify. 
1840. J. W. Robbins found JZ. ast near Uxbridge. 
1842. Rugel discovered an Jsoétes in Lake Imonia in 
Florida, which was soon afterwards ec erarty in Europe by 
Shuttleworth under the name of I. FLaccipaA. None of his 
specimens are believed to exist in America. In the same 
year N. Riehl and myself found near St. Louis, Mo., the 
species which from my specimens was by A. Braun named 
1843. Chas. ‘Geyer found in Western Idaho I. Nuttallii, 
according to A. Braun, who examined the specimens in the 
Kew Herbarium. In the same year E. Tuckerman collected 
J. lacustris in the Echo Lake in New Hampshire. 
Wm. Zantzinger rediscovered the Jsoées on the 
banks of the Delaware, near Philadelphia. His specimens, 
sent to me, are the type of my I. RIPARIA. 
1845. T. ite —— found in Massachusetts J. echino- 
spora, var. Brau 
1848. E. acca discovered near gree the species 
bape was by A. Braun named for him, I. Tuc 
RMA 
1850. A. W. Chapman oe in dlp nein [860 (3)] 
Florida a peculiar Zscétes, which proved to 
large-spored form of I. flaccida, <7 was eae var. CHAP- 
1 E. Hall discovered in his fields near Athens in 
Central Illinois the species which was afterwards named by 
J. Gay I. MELANOPODA. 
1856. I found J. echinospora, var. Braunii, in Lake Win- 
nipiseogee in New Hampshire, the type of I. Braunu, 
urien. 
1857. D. C. Eaton obt aie I. Engelmanni for the first 
time in the New England Sta 
1860. Wm. Boott oat near Boston the form of 7. 
echi which was named from his specimens I. MURI- 
CATA by Prof, Durieu, the present 7. echinospora, var. mu- 
ricata. 
1862. Th. C. i — near Lancaster, Pa., the 
largest American Jsoéfes, I. Engelmanni, var. = ALIDA. In 
the same year G. Vasey foal T. melanopoda in 
1863. J. Macoun obtained J. echinospora, var. =e Peak 
eS en en) ee 
SO ee ee Tee 
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