84 | Rhodora [APRIL 
On the latter sheet, in Mr, Boott's handwriting, are the words, ** This 
specimen is good Novae Angliae. The rest of this sheet seems to be 
Emmonsit. Did this specimen really come from the Blue Hills ? ” 
It is evident from this label that Mr. Boott was himself in doubt 
whether the one specimen of Novae Angliae on this sheet had really 
been collected with the others, or had accidentally got in among them. 
Many of our local botanists have sought for Carex Novae-Angiliae, 
both in Purgatory Swamp and in the Blue Hills, but without success, 
so far as I am aware. 
On June 15, 1899, I found three very good specimens in one of the 
wooded valleys between Great Blue and Hancock Hill. I was par- 
ticularly anxious to find Carex Novae-Angliae, and examined every one 
of the many tufts of Carex varia growing in the shade of the young 
oak and chestnut trees. "Three plants were all I could find, after a 
careful search, and it is probable that it is not abundant, even in the 
localities where it grows. — Gro. G. KENNEDY. 
CAPSELLA IN JANUARY. — As an addition to our January flora, I 
should like to mention that I have several times this year observed the 
Shepherd's purse — Capsella bursa-pastoris — blossoming in Roxbury, 
the first observation being on January 6, and the latest on the 26th. 
It had a particularly favored situation, growing in the cracks of a side- 
walk, and being protected by a stone wall which faced towards the 
south. The flowers did not open fully, but some of them, at least, have 
produced seed, of which, however, I have not yet tested the fertility. 
The ovaries appeared abnormally large. — Jonn MURDOCH, JR. 
RoxBURY, Mass. 
NOTES ON ECHINACEA. 
M. L. FERNALD. 
A HANDSOME purple cone-flower of the prairies has during the past 
decade crept gradually eastward: and now, like its near relative the 
yellow cone-flower (Rudbeckia hirta), is appearing in New England 
hayfields. Unlike the latter plant, however, the purple cone-flower 
has not yet become a troublesome weed, but is so far an unusual 
species in the northeastern states. 
