302 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
rescence a loosely forked cymose panicle: petals narrowly obovate, 
nearly twice the length of the somewhat rigid acuminate prominently 
3-ribbed sepals: capsule about equalling or exceeding the calyx. — 
Fl. i. 274; Ell. Sk. i. 521; Hook, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 99, t. 33 (including 
both var. a, a weak boreal few-flowered form with erect leaves, and 
var. 8, the common form with spreading leaves); Torr. & Gray, Fi. 
i. 179, var. 8; Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, ii. 37. ?A. setacea, 
Muhl. Ind. Fl. Lane. 169. A. Michauxii’, Hook. f. Arc. Pl. 28%, 
322. Alsine Michauxii, Fenzl, Verbr. Alsin. 18; Regel, Ost-Sib. 1. 
351, t. 8, f. 1-5. — Rocky and gravelly soil, Vermont to S. Carolina, 
westward to Minnesota. 
Var. Texana. More rigid, stems fewer, 3-7 inches high, strongly 
enlarged at the nodes: leaves very short, conspicuously connate ; the 
fascicled ones but 1-2 lines long: flowers in a small rather dense 
cyme: sepals almost cartilaginous, very strongly 3-nerved, appeal 
ing attenuate through the infolding of their margins. —? A. séricta, 
var. a, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 179. — Rocky Hills, Texas; along the 
Canadian River, Gordon, April, 1848; Bigelow, August, 1853 ; 
Dallas, Hall, July, 1872: Comanche Peak, Reverchon, 1881; Arkan- 
sas, Leavenworth; False Washita, Ind. Ter., Palmer ; Kansas, Norto® 
Smith. Owing to its definite and limited geographic range this variety 
may, as Dr. Britton suggests, prove worthy of specific rank. The 
characters, however, are not very definite, and a specimen from Potoss 
Mo. (F. Peck) exactly connects it with the type. While the descrip 
tion of Torrey and Gray’s var. a, cited above, ill accords with the 
present plant and rather suggests that these authors intended their 
var. a to be equivalent to the var. a of Hooker, as their var. 2 was ° 
his var. 8, yet in the Columbia Herbarium there are specimens of the 
southwestern plant labelled in Torrey’s hand as var. a. If the be can 
plant was the var. a of Torrey and Gray, it need scarcely be said or 
it could not have been the typical form of Michaux’s species, a5 i? 
doubtless intended to be. 
* * * * * Perennials, closely matted or tufted, 1-6 inches in height: sepals 
acuminate, but not strongly nerved, except in A. verna. 
A. verna, L. Rather closely tufted: stems numerous, slender, | 
ascending or erect, smooth, 1-5 inches high, 1 to 3 (or more) flowered j : 
the upper internodes commonly considerably exceeding the leaves’ 
leaves linear-subulate, flat, rather strongly 3-nerved, usua 
and never squarrose: peduncles filiform: sepals ovate-oblong, 
to acuminate, strongly 3-nerved, 13-1? lines long, exceeding he yes a 
vate or oblanceolate obtusish petals: capsule somewhat surpassiMg- : 
