196 



October 3 — open grassy roadside, ^ of a mile west of Rowlandsville, 



Cecil Co., Md, R. R. Tatnall 4702. 

 1941 : August 15 — common as a weed on the grounds of the New York Botani- 

 cal Garden, Bronx Park, Bronx Co., N. Y., Joseph Monachino [H. N. 



Moldenke 11747]. 

 September 7 — along a roadside at Seeley's Notch, Somerset Co., near 



Scotch Plains, N. J., H. N. Moldenke 11792. 

 September 9 — grounds of the New York Botanical Garden, a common 



weed, Bronx Park, Bronx Co., N. Y., Joseph Monachino [H. N. 



Moldenke 11811 and 11813, the first-mentioned collection is of diseased 



plants]. 



Mr. Louis E. Hand, in a letter to me dated September 15, 1941, 

 says : "my acquaintance with it [Persicaria longiseta] is rather local 

 in scope, as I haven't seen it except within a relatively short distance 

 of Philadelphia and in Bucks Co., Pa. It is fairly common in the city 

 and suburbs. Mr. O. H. Brown, of Cape May, N. J., told me in 

 August of this year that he just recently collected it in his county 

 for the first time." 



Persicaria longiseta is an annual species with nearly prostrate to 

 erect stems, usually with a reddish-purple cast. The leaves are 

 lanceolate to narrowly ovate, spotted or rather obscurely spotted 

 in the middle, pellucid-punctate, short-petioled or subsessile, 5-12 

 cm. long. The spikes are slender, usually basally interrupted, rather 

 deep pink in color. The achenes are smaller than those of any of the 

 native species with which it could be confused, being only 1.8-2 mm. 

 long, and are always trigonous and shining. The ocreae are termi- 

 nated by long, firm bristles, which are 4-8 mm. long and about equal 

 or often surpass the sheath itself in length. 



The species is a native of subtropical and tropical eastern Asia, 

 from China and Japan, through the Philippine Islands, to Java 

 and Sumatra. It is known also under the names Polygonum caespito- 

 sum var. longisetuin (De Bruyn) A. N. Steward, P. Donii var. 

 longisetum (De Bruyn) Miq., P. Blumei Meisn., P. huisanense 

 Ohki, Persicaria Gentiliana Levi., and Persicaria buisanensis 

 (Ohki) Sasaki. Ferguson distributed his specimens to the Local 

 Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden under the name 

 "Persicaria longiseta (De Bruyn) Meisn.," but I am unable to find 

 that this combination was ever published either by Meisner or by 

 anyone else to date. 



A summary of the herbarium material cited above, geographi- 

 cally arranged, is given herewith. The abbreviations in parentheses 



