460 
TEANS. OF THE ACAD, OF SCIENCE. 
~lf 
6032, Hb. norm, 52. With a good deal of hesitation, express¬ 
ed in the specific name given to this plant, I venture to sepa¬ 
rate it from the closely allied J. oxymeris of the same regiftn. 
Its rounded and only slightly compressed leaves certainly 
seem to be very distinct from the flattened equitant leaves of 
the latter species, but otherwise the whole appearance, the 
rhizoma, the panicle, the flower, the stamens even, and the 
fruit, show scarcely any difference; only the seed proves dis¬ 
tinct, and as, I believe, we can safely rely on characters de¬ 
rived from the sculpture of this organ, we must consider both 
as really distinct species. The seeds of J. oxymeris show on 
one side 7-9 ribs and a distinct reticulation, the arese being 
smooth, and only the ribs slightly crenulate; J . dubius has 
seeds of the same size (0.22-0.25 line long), but with fewer 
(5-7) ribs, and larger, strongly lineolate arese. The panicle 
of this plant is 3—5 inches long, the flowers slender, and with 
the capsule nearly 2 lines long. 
36. J. militaris, Bigelow, Flor. Bost. ed. 2 (1824), p. 139; 
Gray Man. ed. 2, p. 482, was “discovered by B. J). Greene at 
Tewksbury j” and has since been traced from Maine, Blake , 
to Massachusetts, and southward to the Pocono Mountains 
in Pennsylvania, T. Green , New Jersey, Asa Gray } O. F. 
Parker , Maryland, A. Commons , and, if there is no error in 
the label, as far as Alabama, Drummond .—The stout stems, 
2-4 feet high, spring from a creeping rootstock, and bear on 
their lower half' a single leaf, $-3$ feet long, which usually 
overtops the inflorescence, and is mostly followed by a second 
very short one, rarely developed beyond the vaginal part. The 
decompound, rather crowded, sind often somewhat contracted 
light brown panicle is 2-5, usually about 3, inches long; the 
heads are 5-12 flowered, only in a Maryland specimen I find 
them 15-25 flowered. Flowers (in the North in August) 1§ 
lines long; sepals lanceolate, outer ones subulate-pointed or 
even aristate, mostly very little shorter than the acute inner 
ones; stamens 6, two-thirds the length of the sepals; linear 
anthers a little longer than the filaments; stigmas exsert, as 
long as the ovate acuminate ovary and the distinct style to¬ 
gether; capsule sharply triangular, ovate, acuminate, rostrate, 
equalling or slightly exceeding the sepals, one-celled; seeds 
obovate, obtuse, unusually thick, and abruptly apiculate, 
0.25-0.30 line long, and three-fifths of their length in diam¬ 
eter, neatly reticulate, the arese marked with few longitudinal 
lines; 8-10 ribs visible. 
Dr. Robbins has discovered a very curious peculiarity of 
this plant, which abounds in the Blackstone river, near Ux¬ 
bridge, Massachusetts, and its tributaries, and in the flumes 
of the manufactories, but only in rapid parts of these streams, 
and is there not found in sluggish streams or in stagnant 
; 
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