53 



perate specimens this character is, however, not sufficient. I 

 therefore looked for some differences in the flower. 



In the original description and also in Gray's Synoptical Flora, 

 the variety longiflora is said to have a longer corolla attenuate be- 

 low into a distinct tube. I made a comparison with the eastern 

 form and found £hat the flower of the Pacific Coast plant had a 

 slightly longer corolla, but that our common twinflower had 

 just as much a distinct tube as the other, but I found another 

 character, viz., that the var. longiflora had about twice as long 

 calyx-lobes. This character held in all American specimens. 

 How in the European and west Asiatic ? In them, the calyx-lobes 

 were just between the two in length. But now I happened to 

 make the most interesting discovery of all, viz., that all the latter 

 specimens had a campanulate corolla without any indication of a 

 narrow tube at the base. I then looked up illustrations of the 

 European twinflower and found that the corolla there is figured 

 as more campanulate, or short-funnelform without a distinct 

 tube, while our American plant has rather a funnelform corolla 

 with a short narrowed tube-like portion at the base, in fully de- 

 veloped flowers usually exceeding the short calyx-lobes. When 

 the var. longiflora was described, it was evidently compared with 

 the European species in which case the character of the corolla 

 given above is the most prominent. 



Being satisfied that our American twinflower really is distinct 

 from the European, I tried to find if it had ever received a dis- 

 tinct name. I found that it had been named, in 1833, by Forbes 

 in Hortus Woburnensis, page 135. His description is scarcely 

 a description at all, for it does not distinguish the plant from L. 

 borealis, the only character being orbicular shining leaves in con- 

 trast to oval. Undoubtedly his cultivated specimens had un- 

 usually broad leaves. There is, however, no doubt regarding 

 the identity of Forbes's plant and our North American twin- 

 flower, which, therefore, should be known as Linnaea Americana 

 Forbes. 



The genus Linnaea contains consequently at least three spe- 

 cies, viz : 



Linnaea borealis L., of Europe and west Asia. 



