- 254 — 



„ Nearest related to P. Raji which has much more glaucous mostly 

 oblong-lanceolate leaves, shorter ochreae (3 — 8 mm long) with brownish 

 rather than purple bases, much more petaloid and broader, less appressed, 

 oval, overlapping sepals and shorter, broader and darker achenes (4,5 — 

 5,3 mm long, 3 — 3,5 mm broad). On the strand at Grand Narrows 

 P. acadiense and P. Raji were growing together. The material of P. Raji, 

 collected and pressed at the same time as the other, remained in press 

 several weeks and lost essentially no foliage; but the material of P. aca- 

 diense was completely dry in five days and many of its leaves had dis- 

 articulated. 



„P. acadiense has the calyx and the olivaceous exserted achene 

 similar to those of P. Fowleri Robinson, but in that species the achene 

 is very broadly ovate and only 4 mm long; the more fleshy short leaves 

 are elliptic to broadly oblanceolate, with rounded tips; and the broad, 

 flaring, obscurely nerved ochreae are only 3 — 6 mm long. 



,,In the form of its sepals and achenes P. acadiense is similar to 

 P. exsertum Small; but that species, which abounds on some of the salt 

 marshes of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, is a tall erect plant with 

 brown many-nerved ochreae, and with the narrower shorter sepals alter- 

 nately long and short, the outer or longer ones comparatively firm and 

 green" 1 ). 



In its peculiar isolated occurrence, upon the coasts of northwestern 

 Europe and the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and adjacent waters, 

 the range of P. acadiense is matched by several other species : P. Raji 

 itself, which abounds on the sandy strands of eastern Canada and western 

 Newfoundland 2 ); Atriplex maritima E. Hallier {A. sabulosa Rouy) on the 

 strands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence 3 ) ; Agropyron pungens (Pers.) R. & S., 

 apparently indigenous on the coast from Gape Breton to Massachusetts 4 ); 

 and numerous other characteristic plants. These, in general, are of some- 

 what broad range on the coasts from Denmark to France and England. 

 The writer would, therefore, be glad to receive specimens or information 

 showing whether Polygonum acadiense is likewise of broad range on the 

 strands of northwestern Europe or is in reality confined to the coast of 

 Denmark. 



Gray Herbarium, Harvard University. 



At the request of Prof. M. L. Fernald I have examined the spec- 

 imens of V P. Raji" in our herbarium and have found that he is quite 

 right in identifying our Danish plant with his P. acadiense. 



P. acadiense Fernald, which is closely related to P. Raji, seems to 

 have a rather wide distribution along the coasts of northwestern Europe. 

 All our specimens from the coasts of the Baltic (Sweden: Skåne, Sörman- 

 land and Gotland; Liyland: near Riga; and Denmark: Bornholm, Sjælland 

 and Læsø) belong to it; and specimens from the arctic Norway (Syd- 



*) Fernald 1. c. 



2 ) See Fernald, Rhodora XV. 71, 72 (1913). P. Raji has been reported from 

 northwestern America, but the specimens upon which this record rests are 

 P. Fowleri Robinson. 



3 ) See Blake, Rhodora, XVII. 83-8« (1915). [= A. arenarium Woods]. 



4 ) See Robinson & Fernald, Rhodora, XI. 38, 39.(1909). 



