52 Twenty-second Annual Repokt on State Cabinet. 



F. 



SPECIES GROWING SPONTANEOUSLY IN THE STATE AND NOT BEFORE 



REPORTED. 



Elatine clintoniana, sp. nov. 



Slender, erect y leaves cuneate oblong or narrowly obovate / flow- 

 ers with conspicuous rose-red or purplish, spreading petals ; seeds 

 slightly curved, ribbed and pitted. 



Stems csespitose, slender, simple, erect, abundantly rooting at 

 the base, 3"-10" high ; leaves sessile, varying from oblong to oblan- 

 ceolate and narrowly obovate, obtuse, tapering to the base, rather 

 fleshy, very obscurely nerved, entire, minutely whitish glandular- 

 dotted; flowers sessile, single in the axils of the leaves, dimerous; 

 sepals oblong-ovate, obtuse, shorter than the petals and about one- 

 third as broad; petals broadly ovate or suborbicular, obtuse, 

 spreading, twice the length of the ovary, rose-red or purplish; sta- 

 mens longer than the sepals, scarcely as long as the petals, with 

 globose anthers ; stigmas nearly sessile, contiguous, persistent ; cap- 

 sule subglobose often slightly depressed, at the apex, usually four to 

 eight seeded ; seeds nearly straight, longitudinally ribbed, pitted 

 in rows. 



Rocky shores of Bowman's pond, Sandlake, Rensselaer county. 

 July and August. 



This plant forms quite extensive and rather > dense turfs or 

 patches. The smaller forms have three or four pairs of leaves, 

 narrow and nearly uniform in width, and one or two purplish red 

 flowers, all clustered or closely placed at the top of the stem, the 

 lower part of which is naked, or furnished with long, slender root- 

 lets. The larger plants have the leaves broader, more distantly 

 inserted, more tapering toward the base, the flowers more numer- 

 ous and paler or rose-red. A cross section of the stem reveals 

 eight tubes formed by thin dissepiments radiating from the center. 



The distinctive characters of the species, when compared with 

 JE. americana, are found in its more dense, erect mode of growth, 

 smaller size, more slender stems, more narrow leaves, and especially 

 in its conspicuous, spreading, bright-colored petals. The seeds 

 also furnish distinctive but microscopic characters. They are 

 shorter, less curved, more distinctly ribbed longitudinally, less 

 wrinkled transversely, the impressions shorter, more regular in out- 

 line and more distantly placed, the interspaces being usually almost 

 as wide as the impressions. In the seeds of E. americana, the 

 interspaces are narrow and more elevated, so that when viewed. 

 under the microscope by transmitted light, these elevations or 

 wrinkles appear along the margins of the seed like rows of 

 papillae. 



It gives me great pleasure to dedicate this neat little species to 

 my much esteemed friend and active co-laborer in botany, the 

 Hon, G, W, Clinton. 



